This week:
- My favorite new TV show of the week.
- My favorite character on TV.
- Michelle Obama roasts people now.
- The new ad that will give you heart palpitations.
- The Cannes video I can’t stop watching.
My Favorite Character on TV Right Now
Hacks is the best show airing on TV right now, and if you’re not watching it, I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe you need to love yourself more. Choose joy. Come see what life is like up here out from under that rock.
One of the greatest delights of this season has been “Dance Mom,” the cringe middle-aged TikTok star who is brought on to Deborah Vance’s (Jean Smart) late-night show in a naked appeal to lowbrow Middle America. To everyone’s chagrin, her cheesy dances to sunny pop songs—variations on grapevines, step-touches, finger guns, and jazz hands while Katy Perry’s “Lifetimes” plays—actually work. America loves her.
There’s a new Hacks tonight, but I have not yet recovered from Julianne Nicholson dancing to Katy Perry’s “Lifetimes” as Dance Mom in last week’s episode. pic.twitter.com/SH3OPittFI
— Luca Giliberti (@LucaLeonardo99) May 8, 2025
When Dance Mom, played hilariously by Julianne Nicholson, is introduced, she’s invited out to Los Angeles to audition for Deborah’s show, she gets excited: “Like the L.A. episode of Sex and the City!” Girl won my heart then and there.
But Dance Mom isn’t as Pollyanna as she first seems, as this week’s episode reveals. Managers Jimmy (Paul W. Downs) and Kayla (Meg Stalter) are brought in to reel her in after she goes on a sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll bender, opening the door to the $25,000/week mansion she’s renting from Adam Levine with her robe open and doing whip-its.
She was introduced as a kind of Katie Couric/Hoda Kotb acolyte, but transforms more into the second coming of Courtney Love.
From embarrassingly basic cringe queen to whirling dervish of depraved and perverted chaos, it’s an exceptional arc. And it’s one that only a show like Hacks, with such a detailed understanding of its tone and how to undulate between groundedness and outlandishness, could pull off. Not to mention one that only an actress like Nicholson could embody believably.
Michelle Obama, Roastmaster
The groan that “everyone is starting a podcast” used to refer to, like, your most annoying coworker and their frat brother, or the two loudest friends that you have. Now it extends far beyond that, to A-list celebrities and former first ladies.
But give Michelle Obama credit where it’s due: She’s entering her podcaster era with exactly the right IDGAF attitude. It’s yielded great rewards, too. For example, I don’t think I laughed more at anything this week than Obama making fun of short people on Amy Poehler‘s Good Hang podcast.
A post shared by Good Hang With Amy Poehler (@goodhangwithamy)
She refers to short people, like Poehler and Quinta Brunson, as pocket people, and coos about how they can just fit in the nook of her armpit. “You make noise when you move,” she says, continuing the teasing and then actually making the noise while miming a short person trotting around with her fingers on the table: “Ting ting ting ting ting.” When Poehler protests that short people don’t make sounds when they walk, Obama interrupts: “I thought I heard squeaking.”
Michelle Obama, comedy queen? Not the weirdest part of 2025.
The World Simultaneously Hits the Cold Shower
The zoom-in functions on iPhones all over the world were tested to their limits this week.
Dolce & Gabbana released the official campaign for their Light Blue fragrance, featuring a commercial and photo shoot starring White Lotus star Theo James and Italian fashion model Vittoria Ceretti.
They are on a boat, alternating between writhing around with each other and swimming under the blistering sun.
Ceretti is pretty and all, but, uh, we need to talk about Theo James in his itsy bitsy teeny weeny almost see-through white Speedo. We need to talk about it because D&G wants us to talk about it. James in that Speedo—from the front, from the back, from above, from below—is shot in a way that I believe is intentionally meant to send me into cardiac arrest.
Theo James looks handsome for Dolce & Gabbana. pic.twitter.com/BXIbdcx5sZ
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) May 16, 2025
And the things that I have seen some people post about how good he looks in the form-fitting swimsuit… Let’s just say we have strayed so far from God’s light that we no longer have shadows.
I Can’t Stop Watching This
And the 2026 Oscar for Best Short Film goes to…Emma Stone getting attacked by a bee while clutching Pedro Pascal on the red carpet at Cannes!
Emma Stone gets attacked by a bee at the Cannes Film Festival. pic.twitter.com/GvIv5Ua669
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) May 16, 2025
More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed
I went to “mocktail hour,” naturally, with some of the cast of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Read more.
Do yourself a favor and watch Bryan Cranston tripping on mushrooms in Las Vegas. Read more.
Beatboxers performed the Mission: Impossible theme at the Cannes premiere. Read more.
What to watch this week:
Duster: It’s about time Lost‘s Josh Holloway gets to play the hunky bad boy again. (Now on Max)
Sister Midnight: If you like puking, murder, and ghosts, have we got a movie for you. (Now in theaters)
Murderbot: Turns out Alexander Skarsgård is a pretty funny robot. (Now on Apple TV+)
What to skip this week:
Final Destination: Bloodlines: The next disturbing kill should be of this franchise. (Now in theaters)
Hurry Up Tomorrow: After seeing this The Weeknd movie, you’d wish tomorrow had waited. (Now in theaters)
The post Dance Mom on ‘Hacks’ Is the Best Character on TV appeared first on The Daily Beast.
