• Brazil was held to a 1-1 draw by Switzerland on Sunday in their first 2018 World Cup match.
• The match was full of fouls — 30 in total — 10 of which were directed at Brazil's superstar striker Neymar Jr.
• Neymar's 10 fouls make him the most fouled World Cup player in 20 years.

World Cup favorites Brazil took on underdogs Switzerland on Sunday.

It was all going Brazil's way in the first half as Philippe Coutinho's sparkling, long-range effort gave the South American's the lead at 20 minutes.

However, the Brazilian script was unravelled as Steven Zuber headed home a corner cross to level the playing field.

Despite the valiant effort from the Swiss to cling on to a 1-1 draw, the match was marred somewhat by a high volume of fouls. Most of the hard tackles were directed at Brazil's talisman striker, Neymar Jr.

Neymar was on the receiving end of no less than 10 fouls during the match — the most of any World Cup player since England's Alan Shearer was fouled 11 times against Tunisia 20 years ago.

It was also the most fouls suffered by a Brazilian in a World Cup match since 1966, ESPN reports.

Throughout the game, Neymar was taken down again...

... And again...

... And again.

Neymar's ability means he is often a target of malicious defending. In 2014, the Brazilian was forced to make an early exit from the World Cup hosted by his own country when a vicious tackle fractured a vertebra in his spine in the quarterfinals against Colombia.

Brazil would go on to lose 7-1 to Germany in the semi-final without Neymar — one of the most humbling defeats in the competition's history.

While some commentators argued that the illegal tackles showed the Swiss defence couldn't handle Neymar's mercurial pace and control...

... Others said it was proof that his ostentatious style of play could be undone.

"Despite hobbling away after becoming the most fouled player at a World Cup in 20 years, Neymar’s performance borderlined on a schoolboy level as he tore Brazil’s tactics apart," The Independent's chief football writer Miguel Delaney wrote.

SEE ALSO: The one player you need to know from every country competing in the 2018 FIFA World Cup

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: NFL cheerleaders reveal the best and worst parts of their job

• Disney and Nintendo are collaborating on a new TV show dedicated to the wildly popular Nintendo Switch console.
• The show is named "Nintendo Switch Family Showdown," and it's set to debut this summer.
• "Nintendo Switch Family Showdown" has four families competing against each other in a variety of Nintendo Switch games.
• It's the latest example of Nintendo's regained foothold as the leader in video games.

Nintendo and Disney are massive unto themselves, which is why it's such a big deal that the two entertainment giants are teaming up on a new show: "Nintendo Switch Family Showdown."

As the name implies, the show is a competition between four families using the Nintendo Switch game console.

The show will employ a number of major Switch games for the competition, such as "searching for collectibles in 'Super Mario Odyssey,' competing in head-to-head matchups in 'Mario Tennis Aces' and participating in dance-offs in 'Just Dance 2018.'"

It's set to debut this summer on the Disney Channel and Disney XD; it will also be streamed on the DisneyNOW app.

The partnership between Disney and Nintendo on "Nintendo Switch Family Showdown" is the latest example of Nintendo's return to dominance in video games. 

Just a few years ago, Nintendo's Wii U console was languishing — few major games were exciting people, and consumers weren't buying the Wii U. That all changed with the launch of Nintendo's Switch console in March 2017.

The Switch combines a home console with a portable console. You can play it at home on your TV, you can play it as a handheld in the backseat of a car — you can even prop it up with a built-in stand and use it like a standalone game console, with each Joy-Con controller sliding off and becoming two individual gamepads.

Between the novelty of the Switch concept, a relatively low price ($300), and a barrage of killer games from Nintendo's top creative talent, the Switch quickly became a massive hit. A little over a year after launch, and Switch sales are showing no signs of slowing down. 

And now, with "Nintendo Switch Family Showdown," Nintendo has yet another mainstream hook with the Switch.

SEE ALSO: The winners and losers of E3 2018, the biggest video game event of the year

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This $530 Android phone is half the price of an iPhone X and just as good

• John Travolta's new mob biopic, "Gotti," was slaughtered by critics ahead of its opening last weekend.
• The film brought in only $1.67 million, 40% of which reportedly came from MoviePass, which acquired an equity stake in it earlier this year.
• "Gotti" had a 0% "rotten" rating on the reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes as of Monday morning. 

John Travolta's new mob movie, "Gotti," premiered over the weekend to a poor box-office performance and universal critical panning, and MoviePass appears to be the only thing giving it a semblance of a pulse.

MoviePass invested in "Gotti" in April through its MoviePass Ventures subsidary, which the company created to take equity stakes in movies. MoviePass accounted for 40% of the film's $1.67 million opening weekend, or $668,000, Deadline reported.

"Gotti" is the second movie MoviePass has invested in through MoviePass Ventures. The first was the heist movie "American Animals," which debuted earlier this month in a limited opening to critical acclaim. "American Animals" stands at a US box office haul of $760,545, according to Box Office Mojo.

"'Gotti' is precisely the type of film we established MoviePass Ventures to support," MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe said in a statement in April. "We are helping boost traffic to these theaters for people to see these great films."

"Gotti" undoubtedly suffered as it went into its opening weekend with a 0% "rotten" rating on the reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

Many critics did not hold back in their reviews.

"I'd rather wake up next to a severed horse head than ever watch 'Gotti' again," the New York Post critic Johnny Oleksinski wrote in his review.

"That the long-gestating crime drama 'Gotti' is a dismal mess comes as no surprise. What does shock is just how multifaceted a dismal mess it is," Glenn Kenny wrote for The New York Times.

Meanwhile, MoviePass hit 3 million subscribers last week, prompting Ted Farnsworth, the head of its parent company, Helios and Matheson Analytics, to say MoviePass could break even at 5 million subscribers.

But it's unclear how MoviePass could accomplish that feat, given that it loses money on every additional subscriber, has been burning cash at a rate of over $20 million a month, and invests in movies that aren't exactly piling up money.

SEE ALSO: MoviePass has hit 3 million paid subscribers, but its growth has slowed

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What humans will look like on Mars

Social media is good for TV fans.

In the past month, social media has helped saved three TV shows as a result of desperate fans tweeting and campaigning to save them. 

It started when Fox canceled the beloved "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" due to poor ratings, and then NBC saved it less than two days later. More recently, another Fox show, "Lucifer," got canceled but saved by Netflix. 

But not every show with rallying fans is so lucky. 

Here are all the canceled TV shows in 2018 that got saved by another network, along with a few shows with passionate fans that haven't gotten saved:

SEE ALSO: The best and worst TV series finales of all time, from 'The Americans' to 'Seinfeld'

"Lucifer" — saved by Netflix after getting canceled by Fox

"Lucifer" was canceled by Fox after three seasons in May. The series follows Lucifer Morningstar (the Devil). He is bored in hell, so he abandons it to go to Los Angeles where he runs a nightclub and becomes a consultant for the LAPD.

Fox said "Lucifer" was canceled due to poor ratings, but its devoted audience made enough noise that both Netflix and Amazon were in talks to bring it back for a fourth season. In the end, Netflix took it.

"The Expanse" — saved by Amazon after getting canceled by SyFy

Critics gushed over the third season of "The Expanse," a sci-fi show set on colonized planets hundreds of years into the future. In May, SyFy canceled the show.

But critics and fans rallied behind it and campaigned to save it, with over 130,000 fans signing a Change.org petition. The campaign even involved fans flying bannered planes over the Amazon headquarters, and "Game of Thrones" author George R.R. Martin sending an email in support of the show to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, according to Deadline.

In late May, Bezos announced that Amazon picked it up for a fourth season. 

"Brooklyn Nine-Nine" — saved by NBC after getting canceled by Fox

Devastated "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" fans instantly took to social media to express their sadness about Fox's cancellation in May. Less than two days later, NBC announced that it was bringing the Brooklyn set cop comedy back for a sixth season during the 2018-2019 season.

"It was the middle of the night, I woke up to my phone glowing and I'm wondering what is going on," star Terry Crews told Business Insider about finding out the show had been saved. "I got all these texts with everyone saying, 'We're picked up!' I jumped out of bed. I felt like I was one of Madonna's kids. 'I get to live in the mansion now, she picked me!'"

Netflix has been doing nostalgia better than just about anyone in recent years.

As the company has leaned into making its own shows, a significant piece of its strategy has been reviving fan favorite series like "Full House," "Arrested Development," and "Gilmore Girls." 

In its latest revival, Netflix released the fifth (and second Netflix-original) season of "Arrested Development" last month.

Given Netflix's love of data, a commitment to nostalgia makes sense.

If you can see that people are continuously binge-watching "Gilmore Girls," why not make a new season of it? You already know there's an audience for it. (That seems to have translated into viewership, at least for the first seasons of the "Gilmore Girls" and "Full House" revivals).

But are these revivals any good?

To try and answer that question, we turned to reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, and looked at what the critics had to say. Here's a list of shows Netflix has brought back from the dead, ranked from worst to best in critical reception, along with a short description. We excluded children's shows, and we split the two versions of "Wet Hot American Summer" for clarity.

Nathan McAlone contributed to an earlier version of this post.

SEE ALSO: All 65 of Netflix's notable original shows, ranked from worst to best

12. "Fuller House" — 33%

Critic rating: 33%

Audience rating: 73%

Previous network: ABC

Netflix description: "The Tanner family's adventures continue as DJ Tanner-Fuller shares a home with her sister Stephanie and friend Kimmy who help raise her three boys."

11. "The Killing" (Season 4) — 47%

Critic rating:47%

Audience rating: 80%

Previous network: AMC

Netflix description: "Seattle homicide detectives Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder are deeply affected by the murders they investigate in this dark, acclaimed crime series."

10. "Arrested Development" (Seasons 4 and 5) — 71%

Critic rating:75%

Audience rating average: 89%

Previous network: Fox

Netflix description: "It's the Emmy-winning story of a wealthy family that lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together."

Between "Super Mario Odyssey," "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds," "Horizon Zero Dawn," and "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," 2017's game lineup was hard to top.

But 2018 has some massive games of its own.

From major new Nintendo games to highly-anticipated sequels, 2018 is full of promising new games. As such, we've put together a thorough list of games that should officially be on your radar this year.

Perhaps we forgot your favorite game? Let us know! This list will be updated over time, and your contribution is much appreciated!

SEE ALSO: A ton of great games came out in 2017 — these are the 10 best

1. "Dragon Ball Fighter Z"

If you even remotely care about the "Dragon Ball" universe, you probably already know what "Dragon Ball Fighter Z" is. Even if you don't, you should: It's a gorgeous, unique fighting game that doesn't require a burning passion for anime to enjoy.

The game plays out similarly to the "Marvel vs Capcom" franchise, with each player selecting a team of three to fight as. You can switch between that trio during a match — matches play out in 2.5D, where the fight is on a 2D plane but the visuals are in gorgeous 3D. If you're a "Dragon Ball" fan you'll enjoy it more, but this one looks like a delight for anyone who enjoys a good fighting game period.

Release Date: January 26, 2018

Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC

2. "Monster Hunter: World"

"Monster Hunter: World" is the latest major entry in the long-running, cult-classic "Monster Hunter" series. 

If you're wondering what the game is about, look no further than the on-the-nose name: You hunt monsters, repeatedly, in the third-person. This is a game about exploring a massive world and taking down its massive monsters. You can do that alone, or you can do that with up to four friends, but the goal remains the same: Murder monsters, take the loot you get from those monsters, and use it to take down more monsters. 

Release Date: January 26, 2018

Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC (release date unknown for PC version)

3. "Shadow of the Colossus"

In 2018, the best game from 2005 arrives on the PlayStation 4. It's called "Shadow of the Colossus," and it's getting a gorgeous remake on the PlayStation 4.

When the game originally launched on the PlayStation 2 in 2005, it was a revelation for PlayStation 2 owners. Though it may look like a standard video game, "Shadow of the Colossus" is anything but — the diminutive character you see above is who you play as, and he's got an objective: Take down gigantic monsters. But why? And what are these "monsters"? Are they monsters, or is he, for murdering them? 

Release Date: February 6

Platforms: PlayStation 4

Having earned over $12 billion worldwide, the movies from Pixar Animation aren't just enjoyable global moneymakers, but are stories that affect us on an emotional level that we can't wait to experience again and again.

From the "you've got a friend" tale of the "Toy Story" movies to a commentary on how we need to protect our planet in the multilayered "WALL-E," Pixar movies are much more than kids movies or cartoons. 

With Pixar's latest, "Incredibles 2," hitting theaters this past weekend and earning the highest-grossing opening weekend at the box office ever for an animated movie (beating another Pixar title, "Finding Dory"), we've taken on the gargantuan task of ranking all 20 Pixar releases — scroll down to find out the best.

SEE ALSO: 17 movie sequels that took over 10 years to be released, including "Incredibles 2"

20. 'Cars 2' (2011)

Taking Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) and Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) away from Radiator Springs and going international (plus making Mater a spy) didn't grab critics. This sequel became the first "rotten" Pixar movie on Rotten Tomatoes. Deservedly.

19. 'A Bug’s Life' (1998)

In the second movie ever released by Pixar, an ant named Flik (voiced by Dave Foley) sets out to find others to help save his colony against grasshoppers and ends up recruiting a unique group of allies.

Though the movie was successful at the box office, with the release of DreamWorks' "Antz" a month earlier, you're more likely to remember the Lasseter-Katzenberg feud than the films. 

18. 'Cars 3' (2017)

Though the "Cars" movies are the least acclaimed of anything Pixar makes, the company continues to churn them out. The latest one touches on some interesting themes like mortality and self-confidence, but it feels like everyone involved in the making of it was on cruise control.

• The director of "Superfly," Director X, is best known for his landmark music videos for artists like Drake ("Hotline Bling") and Rihanna ("Work").
• But he's now taking the skills he learned making music videos and commercials to build a career in Hollywood.
• He compares working for Madison Avenue or Hollywood to being a chef or mercenary who has been hired to follow through on an order.

Director X can easily recall the biggest cinematic moment of his youth.

“‘Empire Strikes Back’ is the movie that I remember affecting me immediately,” X, whose real name is Julien Christian Lutz, told Business Insider over the phone. “The Legos I used I was trying to recreate the spaceships from the movie. That’s the standout.”

Born and raised near Toronto, Director X said he was always a visual person. Around the time he was being amazed by the “Star Wars” saga, he was also running around with his friends in the neighborhood shooting little movies with a video camera. And when he wasn’t doing that, he was drawing in a notepad with dreams of one day getting into the comic-book business.

It’s that thirst for the visual arts that led him to cement himself as the premiere hip-hop music video director working today.

If you’re not familiar with his name you most certainly have seen his work: “Hotline Bling” (Drake), “Work” (Rihanna), “Excuse Me Miss” (Jay-Z), “Hot in Herre” (“Nelly”) aren’t just standouts because of the artists behind the music, but the look of the videos. They are crafted by X with polished production design and his trademark opening and closing of the videos with the horizontal or vertical frames of the shot, expanding to reveal the shot and closing in until the screen goes black.

Now X is getting his chance at a studio movie, as he’s director of the reboot of the Blaxploitation classic, “Superfly” (in theaters).

The plot points are similar to the original movie (1972 “Super Fly”) — a cocaine dealer named Priest (played by Ron O’Neal in the original movie and Trevor Jackson in the reboot) is out for one last major score — but the new version tweaked it to give it more of a 2018 feel. Instead of being set in New York City, it’s in Atlanta (the generous tax credit for shooting movies in the state of Georgia may have also motivated this change), and instead of the cops providing Priest with the massive amounts of cocaine to sell, like in the original, a Mexican cartel is the distributor.

These changes and the injection of hip-hop in the movie (the soundtrack was produced by artist Future) make it an experience at the multiplex that is extremely entertaining.

As X put it, “If you don’t know the song the cop is singing when he pulls Freddy over, you shouldn’t be seeing the film.” He was referring to when one of the members of Priest’s crew is pulled over and, while the police search his car, the officer sings Chamillionaire’s anthem, “Ridin’.” 

But even with the movie’s playfulness, X sprinkles in moments of seriousness. One gang leader dies at the end of a car chase by crashing into a Confederate statue, which is a nod to the string of monuments celebrating Confederate figures being torn down last summer around the country. And at the end of the movie, Priest has a fight with a cop, pummeling him with his martial-arts moves. It’s a moment that isn’t just borrowed from the original movie, but a recognition of Black Lives Matter.

“No one is under the illusion that what’s been happening lately is a new occurrence,” X said of police violence. “The original ‘Superfly’ was a moment of revenge, even if it’s a fantasy, you got to feel it. So this movie I feel is the same way. It’s a fun ride but really it’s the moment of fantasy to see somebody get their f---ing deserved a-- whipping.”

For X, the release of “Superfly” is a landmark moment in his career, as he ascends to a new level in filmmaking.

But he’s seen firsthand that it all can change drastically. One of his biggest mentors is legendary music video director Hype Williams. Like X today, he was behind the most ambitious videos by the biggest artists in the late 1990s (The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Mo Money Mo Problems,” Will Smith’s “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It,” TLC’s “No Scrubs”) and early 2000s (Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin’,” Kanye West’s “Stronger”).

At one point, it was Williams (along with fellow music video director Alan Ferguson) who gave X the pep talk he needed to stay in the business after a rough day of shooting on his first music video, in which he said “he got walked on” by everyone on the set.

“Hype’s main thing was that voice that you hear that you suck is the enemy and you can’t listen to it,” X recalled. “It was the inspiration that I needed to keep on going.”

A few years after that incident, Williams made the movie “Belly,” which X was a visual consultant on. Starring Nas and DMX, its highly stylized story of the drug game became a cult classic and a beloved work for many in the hip-hop community. But Williams has never since gotten another feature film made. X absorbed what Williams went through. He also built an understanding of how to work collaboratively with corporate executives over the years through countless music videos and commercial shoots, and seems destined to handle working for Hollywood better than Williams has.

Comparing himself in some moments to a chef and in others to a mercenary, either way X is making the point that he sees his job as completing a project using the blueprint formed already — whether by a marketing executive, screenwriter, or producer.

“Joel Silver has been trying to make ‘Superfly’ for 20 years, so who the f--- am I to take it out of his hands and act like it’s mine,” X said. “Studio pictures definitely have a lot of things flying around and the idea that the director is the one sole creative decision-making source is not real. It took me a long time to get that balance versus my vision.”

X pointed out that a sequence at the end of “Superfly,” where a flashback scene is used to drive home the connection Priest has with his mentor Scatter (Michael Kenneth Williams), exists because of note from the studio. Going forward, X sees his experience on Madison Avenue benefitting him greatly in Hollywood.

Going back to that chef analogy —

“This is the job, you are getting hired to prepare a meal, in a sense,” he said. “As a director you are in the kitchen cooking it up and if they ask for a steak you better bring them a steak. I approached ‘Superfly’ to fulfill the order that had been made.”

SEE ALSO: Ray Liotta on working with Jennifer Lopez, why he's been in only on Scorsese movie, and not believing the Woody Allen sexual-misconduct allegations

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Sneaky ways Costco gets you to buy more

(Turn the sound on.)

Live-streaming video games to sites like Twitch and YouTube has become very popular these days, for good reason: There's an audience for it, and the technology that makes it possible is highly accessible.

But while many people think streaming is an easy way to make money, most streamers would argue that it's incredibly taxing both physically and emotionally. Many streamers will sit in front of their computers or game consoles for the whole day, every day of the week, which they say takes a toll on their personal lives. So yes, streaming is often about entertainment, but it's still all too easy to forget that these streamers are people, too.

The video above is a heartwarming example of this: On Monday morning, Twitch streamers Ninja, DrLupo, and TimTheTatman were playing "Fortnite" together when DrLupo's wife and young son came into the shot — DrLupo's young son was sick, and he wanted to see his dad. So DrLupo put his son on his lap, and let him play "Fortnite" a bit. After that led to a quick death, DrLupo put his headphones over his son's head and let him talk to the other two streamers.

Of course, the chatrooms in all three Twitch channels were lit up with mentions of DrLupo's young son.

The takeaway: It's common to dismiss people who play video games for a living, but seeing them interact with their families — while at work, in such a highly visible way — demonstrates how streaming for a living can be a difficult balancing act.

SEE ALSO: The 38 hottest video games you shouldn't miss in 2018

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This $530 Android phone is half the price of an iPhone X and just as good

The Emmy ballots are out. In 2018, there are 728 TV shows on the ballot and a daunting 2,372 performances. Members of the Television Academy have until June 26 to vote.

With so many shows and performances in the running, a lot of them won't get the recognition they deserve, even some of the year's best in TV. The slew of contenders especially doesn't help  shows in the drama category with "Game of Thrones" season seven being eligible this year. (It was excluded from the ceremony last year because the season premiered after voting already closed).

Award show favorites including "The Handmaid's Tale," "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," "Atlanta," and "Westworld" are all in the running in addition to "Game of Thrones" this year, which means that some of the lesser-known gems might miss out on deserved nominations. We picked a few of the best.

Nominations are announced July 12 and the Emmy ceremony, hosted by Colin Jost and Michael Che, airs September 17.

From AMC's "Halt and Catch Fire" to Netflix's "American Vandal," here are 5 TV shows that deserve Emmys this year, but probably won't get any nominations:

SEE ALSO: The fan-favorite TV shows that were canceled then saved by another network in 2018 — and some that are still waiting

"The Good Place" — NBC

Nominations it deserves: Best comedy series, best actor in a comedy series (Ted Danson), best supporting actress in a comedy series (D'Arcy Carden), best supporting actor in a comedy series (William Jackson Harper)

"The Good Place" is the most ambitious show on TV (including "Westworld"). Unfortunately, it didn't get any recognition at the Emmys in 2017. In season two, the writers delivered more and more unexpected narrative and character twists, and broadened its fictional world without, like "Westworld," confusing fans or making them exhausted from many dramatic eye-rolls. Its season-two finale teased a completely different format for the series that promises an even bigger, better, and more gutsy third season. The performances, particularly from Ted Danson and the supporting cast, make it even more special.

"Trust" — FX

Nominations it deserves: Best limited series, best supporting actor in a limited series (Brendan Fraser)

"Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" — The CW

Nominations it deserves: Best comedy series, best actress in a comedy series (Rachel Bloom), best supporting actress in a comedy series (Donna Lynne Champlin)

In season three, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" challenged itself more than ever. Within the first few episodes of the season, Rebecca Bunch (played by co-creator Rachel Bloom) attempts suicide. In the aftermath, she gets diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. While "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" isn't the first TV show to cover mental illness, it is the first to approach it in such a deeply personal and vulnerable way. Bloom, along with co-star Donna Lynne Champlin, keep the comedy and quirky spirit of the show afloat during an incredibly dramatic season of television. 

We know what it's like to scroll endlessly on streaming services, ultimately spending more time choosing what to watch than watching something.

So if you're overwhelmed with the amount of TV available to binge-watch, we're here to make things a bit easier.

We put together a list of three shows you can either binge-watch during the week, or at least get started watching.  

This week, we chose a show on Netflix, a show on Hulu, and a show on Amazon Prime. 

From Netflix's "Queer Eye" reboot, which just debuted new episodes; to Freeform's "The Bold Type," which is available to stream on Hulu; here's three TV shows you can stream this week:

SEE ALSO: The 16 best TV shows of 2018 so far

"Queer Eye"

Where to watch: Netflix

Seasons: 2

Episodes: 16

Netflix's adorable and moving "Queer Eye" proves that this particular reboot was needed. The new fab five represent a different era than the first cast. They represent the diversity of our country, and in each episode they show so much care to the men (and sometimes women) they're making over — and about making people feel good about themselves, from the inside first.

Set in Atlanta and small towns surrounding it, the fab five also aren't shy about confronting stereotypes and some contestants (called "heroes") who aren't comfortable with homosexuality.

"The Bold Type"

Where to watch:  Hulu, Freeform (new episodes air Tuesdays)

Seasons: 2

Episodes: 12

"The Americans"

Where to watch: Amazon Prime

Seasons: 5

Episodes: 65

*Note: the sixth and final season is available on the FX app, and makes the episode total 75. It will be available on Amazon in the fall.*

"The Americans," a show about KGB agents living in disguise as an average American family in the DC area, is (arguably) one of the best dramas to come out of television's Golden Age. Throughout its run, "The Americans" never gained a huge audience but it was loved by critics, which is one of the reasons is stayed on as long as it did. The show focuses on family drama and characters you'll instantly love with more layers than an onion, and all that's made more thrilling given its intense, well-choreographed spy action. 

You definitely won't finish "The Americans" this week, but now that it's binge-able, you should get started. 

• Pokémon Go is finally getting Pokémon trading — a feature that was promised when it first came out in July 2016. 
• It's also getting a Friends list, so you can fight alongside or trade with your friends. 
• It just highlights how now is the perfect time to come back to Pokémon Go: In the years since the initial fad, the game has gotten so much better, in ways large and small.

Niantic, the creator of Pokémon Go, announced on Monday that the two-year-old game will "soon" give players the ability to trade Pokémon.

This feature has been promised literally since the game launched: Way back in July 2016, Niantic CEO John Hanke told Business Insider that he considered trading a "core element" of the Pokémon franchise, and that it was in the works. Now, it's finally coming. Niantic says it will start rolling out the feature "later this week."

Trading is just one part of Pokémon Go's new "Friends" feature, which makes it easier to connect with fellow players and battle together. If you're in close physical proximity with a friend, Niantic says in a blog post, that's when you can trade. Players can level up their friendships to reap special benefits, too, says Niantic. You can read the full details in the blog post.

Now, if this news has you thinking about coming back to Pokémon Go, let me tell you this, as a daily active player: You absolutely should. 

The game still has a very active community, and even today only ranks behind the smash-hit "Fortnite" on the list of top-grossing iPhone apps in the Apple App Store — but there's no denying that its popularity is far from the lofty heights it enjoyed in the first month or two after it first came out. 

Since that launch, though, the game has steadily gotten better. About a year ago, Niantic released a sweeping new update that totally revamped how the game's gym battle system works, making it easier and more fun for players of all skill levels and experience to take part.

Better yet, that same update introduced so-called Raid Battles, where up to 20 people can team up to take on a mega-powerful Pokémon, with the chance to catch the boss after you beat it. This system has allowed for legendary Pokémon like Articuno, Kyogre, Ho-oh, and even Mewtwo to make their long-awaited Pokémon Go debuts. 

Most recently, Niantic introduced a new system called Field Research, which rewards players for completing simple tasks, like "catch 10 fire-type Pokémon," or "visit 2 Pokéstops you've never been to before." If you complete a research task every day for a week, you get bonus rewards, plus a shot at a legendary Pokémon. 

But wait, there's more: Niantic also introduced Special Research, which brings a story to the game for the first time ever. It's not much of a story, but hey, baby steps. The first-ever Special Research had you completing tasks of increasing difficulty, finally giving players a shot at catching ultra-rare monster Mew at the climax. 

All the while, Niantic has steadily made dozens of quality-of-life improvements to the game. The app is more reliable, the interface is cleaner, and a monthly Community Day gives players special rewards for getting out en masse for a few hours. 

In other words, Pokémon Go has come a very long way, and is really delivering on the promises it made when it first launched. Finally adding trading and social features is the final piece of the puzzle — and one that really emphasizes that it's the perfect time to jump back in and catch 'em all. 

SEE ALSO: There's a great new reason to return to 'Pokémon Go'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A professional Pokémon card expert valued our childhood collections — and it's bad news for anyone who thinks they’re sitting on a fortune

• The rapper XXXTentacion was shot during an apparent robbery in South Florida on Monday.
• The Broward County Sheriff's Department later told TMZ he had been pronounced dead.
• The rapper, born Jahseh Onfroy, was shot in his car after leaving a motorcycle dealer. 

The rapper XXXTentacion was shot during an apparent robbery in Florida on Monday, police said. The Broward County Sheriff's Department later told TMZ he had been pronounced dead.

Citing witnesses, TMZ reported that the 20-year-old rapper, whose real name is Jahseh Onfroy, was shot in his car after leaving a motorcycle dealer in South Florida. The alleged shooters were two men in a dark colored SUV, Keyla Concepción, the Broward County sheriff department's public information officer, told CNN. 

Videos of what appeared to be Onfroy unresponsive in the driver's seat of a car circulated on social media on Monday. The shooting occurred in Deerfield Beach, about 43 miles north of Miami.

At the time of his death, Onfroy was awaiting trial for a 2016 domestic-abuse case. He faced charges of aggravated battery of his pregnant girlfriend, domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and witness tampering.

Onfroy rose to fame off of his 2016 single "Look at Me!" His debut studio album, "17," reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart and was certified gold in 2017. Onfroy's second studio album, "?," debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart in March.

Caroline Records, the independent label that released Onfroy's two albums, issued a statement on his death to Variety on Monday.

"Everyone at Caroline is shocked to learn of the tragic death of Jahseh Onfroy, professionally known as XXXTentacion," the statement read. "We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones."

Onfroy's representatives did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for further information.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A Navy SEAL explains why you should get up at 4:30 am every day

• Fyre Festival organizer Billy McFarland pleaded guilty to wire-fraud charges in March.
• The 26-year-old was arrested in June 2017 after being accused of misleading investors who poured more than $1 million into Fyre Media.
• McFarland admitted he defrauded 80 investors and a ticket broker out of more than $26 million.
• On June 12, McFarland was arrested on charges of running a fraudulent ticket-selling enterprise called NYC VIP Access while out on bail.
• Here's a look back at what happened. 

The founder of the nightmarish Fyre Festival that left hundreds of attendees stranded in the Bahamas pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud in March.

Now, he's facing fresh charges that he ran a separate, fraudulent ticket-selling company while out on bail. 

26-year-old Billy McFarland admitted to defrauding a ticket broker and 80 investors in Fyre Media, a company that he founded and that was responsible for putting on the Fyre Festival. Prosecutors alleged that McFarland used falsified documents to trick investors in a $26 million scheme.

As a result, McFarland could spend eight to 10 years in prison in addition to paying a fine of up to $300,000, according to Bloomberg.

But on June 12, he was arrested again on charges of selling fake tickets under a different company, called NYC VIP Access, starting in 2017. If convicted on the additional fraud charges, McFarland could face an extended prison sentence, likely of an additional two years, according to Time. 

Fyre Festival promised to offer attendees a VIP experience when they set off to Great Exuma in the Bahamas. But the reality was very different, as attendees encountered delayed flights, half-built huts to sleep in, and cold cheese sandwiches to eat. And that doesn't even include the disastrous trip home.

The luxury festival — tickets for which started at $1,200 — was advertised as two weekends in paradise, but it turned into a nightmare.  Take a look at festivalgoers' expectations compared with the reality they encountered, which is currently being developed into a TV series for Hulu. 

And here's the full Fyre Festival promo video:

SEE ALSO: The founder of the doomed Fyre Festival could spend years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding investors out of millions of dollars

The three-day party was supposed to be on a private beach on the island of Great Exuma in the Bahamas.

It was supposed to be over two weekends in 2017: April 28-30 and May 5-7.

It was described as an "immersive music festival."

Microsoft's Xbox One is losing to Sony's PlayStation 4 — badly.

With nearly 80 million PlayStation 4 consoles in the wild, Microsoft's Xbox One is getting trounced. Estimates put Xbox sales number somewhere in the range of 30 to 50 million — Microsoft stopped reporting hardware sales numbers some time ago.

But don't count Xbox out just yet. 

Between its Netflix-like Game Pass service, the company's game streaming ambitions, several new studio acquisitions, and the brilliant decision to add backwards compatibility, Microsoft is building a strong foundation for the future. 

Here's a look into the future of Xbox, straight from Microsoft's Xbox leader Phil Spencer:

SEE ALSO: Microsoft has a problem with Xbox that it can't buy its way out of

1. Creating the Netflix of gaming with Game Pass.

For $10/month, Xbox Game Pass offers access to over 100 games. That includes every first-party game that Microsoft makes, loads of indies, and — as of very recently — some heavy-hitters from third-party publishers like Bethesda Softworks.

Instead of streaming the games, a la Netflix, you download each game to your Xbox console. As long as you're paying for Game Pass, you keep all the games you download. 

Best of all, any new Xbox One games that come out from Microsoft are included with Game Pass.

When "Forza Horizon 4" arrives this fall, you could drop $10 on a Game Pass subscription to download and play the game — a whopping $50 savings over the normal $60 price of a new game. Microsoft's betting that you'll like the arrangement so much that you'll keep paying for the service every month, like Netflix.

"We're finding people in Game Pass actually play more games," Xbox leader Phil Spencer told me in an interview last week at E3, the annual video game trade show in Los Angeles. "And they're trying some franchises where, if they had to buy the franchise — even if they're $30, $60, whatever the amount might be — it's way easier for them to be invested at $10/month."

In the long term, Spencer said the goal for Game Pass is offer a safe platform for potentially risky, creative games.

"I want it to be a place where creators feel like they can take risks in things that they wanna do, and know that they have an audience of people who are already invested in the service, such that the marginal cost for them to click on the next icon and give it a try is very, very low."

The comparison to Netflix becomes apt once more. Netflix funds lots of creative, bizarre stuff because it can afford to fail — with millions of paying subscribers, Netflix has a sturdy financial foundation from which to experiment. It also has a large platform to surface content that otherwise might get lost in a digital storefront.

2. Building a platform to let people play games anywhere, whether you own a game console or not.

On a stage in the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles on June 10, Xbox leader Phil Spencer offered the clearest picture yet into Microsoft's vision for the future of the Xbox brand.

"Our cloud engineers are building a game streaming network to unlock console-quality gaming on any device," Spencer said. "Not only that — we are dedicated to perfecting your experience everywhere you want to play. On your Xbox, your PC, or your phone."

It's an echo of sentiments he's expressed previously, but it's the most definitive testament to Microsoft's plans for the future of gaming.

"There are 2 billion people who play video games on the planet today. We're not gonna sell 2 billion consoles," Spencer told me in an interview following his stage presentation. "Many of those people don't own a television, many have never owned a PC. For many people on the planet, the phone is their compute device," he said. "It's really about reaching a customer wherever they are, on the devices that they have." 

That said, logic dictates that the ability to stream "console-quality gaming on any device" depends on some pretty major upgrades to internet speeds around the world. It also faces hurdles like the uncertain future of net-neutrality laws and consumer internet data caps.

In the meantime, Microsoft's Azure cloud platform offers an infrastructure that few other companies have. "Fifty data centers in different parts of the planet? Billions of dollars of investment in building that out? It allows us to accelerate our growth in this space," Spencer told me.

3. Building the next Xbox.

In a surprise move, Spencer outright announced Microsoft's work on the successor to the Xbox One. 

You read that correctly: Microsoft has already announced the next Xbox, after the Xbox One.

"The same team that delivered unprecedented performance with Xbox One X is deep into architecting the next Xbox consoles," he said on stage on June 10. "Where we will once again deliver on our commitment to set the benchmark for console gaming."

Of note, Spencer said "consoles" — as in Microsoft is apparently working on more than one future console. Perhaps a smaller, less expensive, streaming-focused Xbox, in addition to a more traditional, larger, $300 to $400 Xbox? 

Spencer didn't specify, but did offer more information on the announcement during an interview with Giant Bomb's Jeff Gerstmann this week. "Everybody knows what's happening," Spencer said in reference to Sony and Microsoft making new consoles. "It's this kind of unsaid thing, of, like, 'Well, they shipped Xbox One X. They didn't lay off their whole hardware team. What do you think they're doing?'" 

He said the announcement was a means of easing potential concerns of longtime console buyers: "It's not tomorrow, but I didn't want people to think that we're walking away from that part of the brand and the business, because it's really important to us." 

In terms of what that console (or consoles) will actually be, Spencer isn't offering any major details just yet. From the sound of things, we're still a few years away from new consoles.

Podcasts have surged in popularity over the last few years, thanks to a few factors working in favor of the audio news industry, like the increasing popularity of the smart home speaker market.

More than a third of the international respondents in the Reuters Institute’s latest Digital News Report — 2,000 from each of the listed countries — said that they had listened to a podcast in the month leading up to the survey. As this chart from Statista shows, the 2,000 US respondents came in at close to the global average, while South Korea had a higher rate, possibly due to more smartphone penetration and social media sharing. The report shows that the percentage of podcast listeners in Hong Kong and Taiwan were similarly high. 

The Reuters Institute's report said that the relatively low numbers in Europe could have to do with the already-established popularity of the audio news format in some countries; news broadcasters might not feel the need to leave their desk in favor of a podcast. It added that it could be a translation issue: "In the UK, for example, much listening comes via the popular BBC iPlayer radio app but on-demand streams and downloads accessed this way are not labeled specifically as podcasts and may not be understood as such in surveys such as ours."

SEE ALSO: Nintendo fans can breathe easy: The company's business model relies too heavily on its handheld consoles to nix them

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why Siri sucks

• The new John Travolta-starring film "Gotti" received a 0% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.
• The film's Twitter called out critics on Monday. "Audiences loved Gotti but critics don’t want you to see it," the tweet said.
• The movie has a 77% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. But it has almost as many user ratings as "Incredibles 2," which is hard to believe considering the box office of the two films.
• "Gotti" made $1.67 million over the weekend. "Incredibles 2" made $180 million.

John Travolta's new film, "Gotti," was torn apart by critics over the weekend and has a 0% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes — but the movie's team isn't giving up quite yet.

The film's official Twitter called out movie critics Monday night. The tweet said "audiences loved Gotti but critics don't want you to see it… The question is why??? Trust the people and see it for yourself!"

Judging by the Rotten Tomatoes audience score for the film, maybe they're onto something: it has a 77% audience score from just over 6,900 user ratings as of Tuesday morning. And on IMDb, the film has a 5.2 score out of 10, which isn't terrible for a movie that has been so critically panned.

But there's also something suspicious about that Rotten Tomatoes audience score. "Gotti" and "Incredibles 2," the long-awaited Pixar sequel that also opened in theaters over the weekend, have almost the same amount of user ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. "Incredibles 2" has almost 7,600 user ratings.

Considering that "Incredibles 2" made $180 million at the box office over the weekend (a record for an animated movie) and "Gotti" made $1.67 million, it's hard to believe that almost as many people would go to Rotten Tomatoes to praise both films. 

MoviePass invested in "Gotti" through its MoviePass Ventures subsidiary and according to Deadline, the monthly movie subscription service accounted for 40% ($668,000) of the movie's box office.

SEE ALSO: John Travolta's MoviePass-funded mob movie 'Gotti' got slaughtered by critics and has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This $530 Android phone is half the price of an iPhone X and just as good

• Netflix's latest romantic comedy, "Set It Up," is one of its best original movies ever.
• Critics and audiences are obsessed with it, and have been gushing over it since its release on Friday. 
• It stars Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs, and has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 
• "Set It Up" shows what a rom-com in 2018 looks like, and that Netflix is on track to bring them back for good. 

Raunchy, progressive, and funny in a non-ironic way (looking at you, "A Christmas Prince"), Netflix's new original movie, "Set It Up," represents what a romantic comedy looks like in 2018, and includes a romantic (and relatable) scene involving a pizza. It became available Friday, June 15, and its praise from critics and audiences proves Netflix could be what saves the rom-com from obscurity. 

"'Set It Up' is a classic rom-com brought to life by a pair of wonderfully well-matched stars who seem to revel in the genre," Kate Erbland of IndieWire wrote in a review. "This is cinematic comfort food, the kind we've been starving for." The movie currently has a 92% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. 

"Set It Up," set in New York City, begins when Harper (Zoey Deutch) and Charlie (Glenn Powell) — executive assistants who work long hours in the same building — meet. Their jobs consist of setting up meetings, ordering food, and other tasks to keep their bosses happy, though they each want a promotion. To make time for their personal lives and career goals, Harper and Charlie set their bosses (Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs) up with each other. Through their jobs as assistants, Harper and Charlie use what they understand about their bosses personally to make them fall for each other. And it works, for a bit. 

"Set It Up" follows every beat you expect a rom-com to. But in between the expected plot points are dirty jokes and absurd characters, including Pete Davidson's Duncan, Charlie's roommate who listens to Third Eye Blind while he hooks up with guys. 

And critics aren't the only ones obsessed with the movie. Like Netflix's "A Christmas Prince," which debuted in November 2017, subscribers instantly started sharing their thoughts on the movie on Twitter:

SEE ALSO: Netflix says 53 of its viewers have been watching 'A Christmas Prince' every single day for over 2 weeks

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Trump pitched peace to Kim Jong Un with this Hollywood-style video starring Kim as the leading man

If the director is the most important crew member on set, in most cases the cinematographer is the second-most important.

A skilled director of photography can turn a mediocre movie suddenly into a critical darling or a good movie into an Oscar contender. But unlike directors, who can have a breakout indie and suddenly get snatched up to do the next Hollywood blockbuster, cinematographers are in it for the long game.

Many have to work a decade or two on independent films, shorts, TV shows, and commercials before scoring a studio feature. And even at that point you still have to compete for work with the legends in the field like Emmanuel Lubezi, Robert Richardson, and Roger Deakins to land a job. 

Here are 11 cinematographers who are beginning to make their mark in Hollywood — including the visionaries behind "Moonlight" and "The Last Jedi."

SEE ALSO: "Superfly" director on how making music videos for Drake and Rihanna taught him how to thrive in the Hollywood studio system

Mike Gioulakis (“It Follows,” “Split”)

Gioulakis has found success in the thriller genre with the indie darling “It Follows” and M. Night Shyamalan’s latest hit, “Split,” being the standouts. For both, Gioulakis’ use of natural light and shadows to amp up the spookiness is a very useful tool.

James Laxton (“Moonlight”)

Jumping around from low-budget indies to a few Kevin Smith movies (“Tusk” and “Yoga Hosers”), Laxton reteamed with Barry Jenkins (he shot Jenkins’ debut feature “Medicine for Melancholy”) to make “Moonlight” — and the rest his history. The beautiful exterior shots of Miami are one of the reasons the movie went on to win an Oscar.

Jody Lee Lipes (“Manchester by the Sea,” “Martha Marcy May Marlene”)

In the early 2000s, Lipes was the guy at NYU everyone wanted to shoot their short films, and since he’s been in high demand on the professional level. From shooting episodes of “Girls” to lensing “Trainwreck,” he’s worked on every budget level. His standouts, though, have been his beautiful shooting of tough stories like Sean Durkin’s “Martha Marcy May Marlene” in 2011 and Kenneth Lonergan’s 2016 Oscar-winning movie, “Manchester by the Sea.”

Many of the biggest upcoming games are missing this holiday season, intentionally making way for an 800-pound gorilla: "Red Dead Redemption 2."

This holiday season, the folks behind "Grand Theft Auto" are launching their next opus for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. As such, major upcoming games like EA's "Anthem" and Sony's "Days Gone" are getting out of the way, and they're not the only two.

At E3 2018, the annual video game trade show in Los Angeles, a surprising number of major games got release dates in the first quarter of 2019 — a time that's usually reserved for leftovers from the holiday season.

Here are all the big games bolstering the first months of 2019:

SEE ALSO: The 13 biggest announcements from E3 2018

"Resident Evil 2" (Remake)

The long-awaited remake of fan-favorite horror classic "Resident Evil 2" is nearly ready — it's set to arrive early in 2019, just like so many other great games currently in development.

"Resident Evil 2" introduced the world to Leon S. Kennedy (seen above) — the main character in "Resident Evil 4." Kennedy and Claire Redfield find themselves in the middle of a surprise zombie outbreak in the fictional town of Raccoon City. It's an action-packed introduction to many of the major themes of the "Resident Evil" franchise, and it's getting gorgeously remade for modern consoles.

Release date: January 25, 2019

Platform(s): PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

Check it out in action right here:

Youtube Embed:
//www.youtube.com/embed/v8_ovw0QaUM
Width: 800px
Height: 450px

"Kingdom Hearts 3"

Woody, Buzz, Rex and the rest of the "Toy Story" gang are moving from film to video games with "Kingdom Hearts 3," an upcoming Xbox One and PlayStation 4 action-adventure game.

The game is the long-anticipated third entry in the "Kingdom Hearts" series — the last major entry, "Kingdom Hearts 2," launched all the way back in 2005 on the PlayStation 2. In "Kingdom Hearts," various Disney characters and their worlds are mashed up with characters that would be right at home in a "Final Fantasy" game.

Alongside the cast of "Toy Story" (and their Earth-like setting), "Kingdom Hearts 3" also stars Goofy and Donald Duck. You may've noticed a third character here — that's "Sora," the main character of "Kingdom Hearts 3" and who you'll play as when the game launches in early 2019 on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Release date: January 29, 2019

Platform(s): PlayStation 4, Xbox One