Latest news with #Trying
The Citizen
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Citizen
Nsikazi hip-hop artist drops 12-track mixtape
An up-and-coming hip-hop artist has released a 12-track mixtape, titled Not Yet, which dropped on May 25. Bhato Ndlovu (23), known by his stage name Saddis, said the project has received positive feedback, especially on social media. 'The mixtape is about love, struggling with trauma, self-improvement and confidence,' said Ndlovu. He described the songs as meaningful and relatable, highlighting tracks such as 'Walls' featuring Yung TJ, 'Missing Pieces', 'Those Days' featuring Munhle, and 'Trying' featuring Bkay Jr. ALSO READ: Young Mpumalanga stars head to national school winter games Ndlovu said he has been working on this mixtape since March last year. His passion for rap led him into music production in 2017, when he recorded his first-ever (unreleased) song using only his phone. 'I felt alive when I recorded it, not even aware of my capabilities and future in music,' he said. He draws inspiration from artists such as Zakwe, MT Vernacular MC and Eminem, who have all influenced him as a songwriter. One of his early achievements includes airplay on Ligwalagwala FM. ALSO READ: Driekoppies muso to enrich talent across the province Ndlovu is currently a second-year language student at the University of Venda. He hopes to one day collaborate with South African hip-hop artists such as A-Reece and Emtee. Not Yet is available on all major digital streaming platforms, including YouTube and Spotify. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
Tom's Guide
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
The best ‘Ted Lasso' alternative is getting another season on Apple TV Plus — and this news has made my day
(Image credit: Apple TV Plus) Earlier this year, Apple TV Plus renewed its hit original 'Ted Lasso' for a surprise season 4, but I didn't join the throngs of viewers cheering for the return of the Jason Sudeikis-fronted soccer series. Instead, I was too busy keeping my fingers crossed for news about 'Trying' season 5, and after a rather long wait, Apple has finally announced that its best comedy is coming back. In a press release, Apple confirmed that 'Trying' has been renewed for a fifth season. This will make it the streaming service's longest-running comedy show. Series regulars Esther Smith and Rafe Spall, who play husband and wife duo Nikki and Jason, are both set to return. You may like The announcement also includes an official logline, which we'll get into shortly, but is otherwise fairly light on new details. There's no release date or even a vague release window, though based on the announcement timing and the release date of the previous seasons, we can expect 'Trying' to return next year, most likely in May 2026. The press release also proudly boasts about the show's 95% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes. And that's a rating I believe 'Trying' most definitely deserves. This feel-good show is even better than anything featuring Coach Lasso, and centres on lovable characters in gently comedic situations with just a pinch of drama. It's easy watching TV at its best. If you're unaware of 'Trying,' it follows Nikki (Smith) and Jason (Spall), a couple in London who decide to adopt after learning they are unable to have children. Across four seasons, we've followed Nikki and Jason on quite the journey, and while a part of me felt that the show's third season finale would have been the perfect end point, I was delighted to see it return for season 4 last year, and now I can't wait to be streaming season 5 hopefully soon. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. 'Trying' seasons 1-4 are now streaming on Apple TV Plus, and once you press that play button, don't be surprised if you binge-watch the whole show in just a matter of days. 'Trying' is not only wonderfully warming but also a series that hooks you fast. Go stream it right now. 'Trying' season 5 — here's what we know (Image credit: Apple TV Plus) Okay, so if you're all caught up on 'Trying' already, let's get into the serious stuff. Here are the brief season 5 plot details that Apple has laid out for us: ''Trying' season 5 finds Nikki (Smith) and Jason (Spall) dealing with the consequences of Princess (Scarlett Rayner) and Tyler's (Cooper Turner) biological mother Kat (Charlotte Riley) turning up at their doorstep, and the whirlwind of chaos she brings into their settled family life.' Frankly, this doesn't give us a whole lot of new information. The "Trying" season 4 finale ended up with a dramatic cliffhanger as Kat showed up at the family's Camden home, so exploring the 'consequences' of that moment was the most logical place for season 5 to go. Still, I expect this setup will make for plenty of chuckleworthy comedy, and I'm particularly excited to see how Spall's often dry-witted Jason reacts to Kat's unexpected arrival. The season 5 announcement post also refers to supporting characters Scott (Darren Boyd) and Karen (Siân Brooke), so we can assume that the fallout from Scott's rash decision to attempt to row across the Atlantic Ocean will be featured. I expect his bold attempt may have failed. Overall, 'Trying' season 5 details are relatively thin on the ground right now, but that's okay with me. Merely knowing the series will return in the future is enough to have completely made my day. More from Tom's Guide
The Guardian
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Were the Friends even human? Watching the old shows again, they certainly don't breed like the rest of us
I've started watching this great fantasy series from the mid-90s and early 00s – it's called Friends. It follows a group of humanoid characters who treat childbirth as a social occasion, wear full makeup postpartum and never look after their babies. The fantasy element is very clever – so subtle in fact that it is only now, watching it decades later, as a parent myself, that I even noticed it. Perhaps back in the 90s the otherworldly nature of Phoebe Buffay waiting to give birth to triplets in a room chock-full of her wise-cracking friends, despite it being a high-risk pregnancy, was understood. Maybe the way that Ross Geller's baby Ben is delivered under a sheet, by an obstetrician apparently working blind, was a well-known speculative fiction trope back then. Possibly when it originally aired, parents were simply amazed by the special effects involved when Rachel Green was shown sitting in a coffee shop gossiping about her love life, three weeks after giving birth, in full makeup and blow-dry, high heels, a pair of size 10 jeans – and entirely without her baby. Whatever was going on, no one at the time seemed fazed by this uncanny valley where babies breastfeed just once in their life, never get ill and are put behind glass in hospital nurseries to be glanced at by visiting relatives who then have sex in cupboards. Luckily, television depictions of birth and parenting have come a long way since I was a child. And I was paying attention, even then. For instance, I remember the scene from Cold Feet in which Karen stormed into her husband David's office demanding that he hire her a nanny (nannies are a big feature of these shows, you will notice). What I didn't remember, and only spotted on a recent rewatch, is that in a preceding scene Karen is shown tearing her hair out at the kitchen table, while trying to feed porridge to her toddler. Except the toddler has a dummy in his mouth, rendering him entirely unable to eat any porridge even if he wanted to. This sort of continuity error might seem small-scale to some of you, but it's the sort of glaring misunderstanding of early parent life that makes me wonder if anyone on that writing, directing and production team was regularly feeding their own child. In recent years, the number of television shows showing something a little closer to what I recognise as pregnancy, birth and early child-wrangling have exploded: Motherland, The Letdown, Trying, Catastrophe, Better Things and Breeders have all made some effort to involve a little domestic labour in their plotlines. Some of them let the babies actually cry and breastfeed. Occasionally the parents look tired and can't make social arrangements. Sometimes, the children in these shows even have lines. I have no doubt that this is, in part at least, because there are more women writing, directing and producing television today. And before you say it, yes, I know Marta Kauffman created Friends and I also know that she has three children. But as I've already pointed out, Friends is a fantasy series. It's magical realism. Kauffman knows that, I know that and I'm sure Lisa Kudrow, who got pregnant during season four, knows that too. I'm not so oblivious to the needs of television drama and comedy to think that you can make a 20-minute episode showing a woman sitting in a dark room at 3am trying to guide a nipple into her baby's ear, in a delirium of exhaustion while wondering idly if she's got threadworms again. But as books such as Becky Barnicoat's new graphic novel Cry When the Baby Cries have shown, the comedy and drama involved in pregnancy and parenthood are right there, in heart-rending, breathtaking detail, if we just allow people to show them. Maybe books have always done it better. About 40 years after they were published, the classic Jill Murphy children's books Five Minutes' Peace, Peace at Last and Whatever Next! still speak more directly to the experience of being a parent than many film and television depictions we've had since. Mrs Large from Five Minutes' Peace may be a bipedal marmalade-eating elephant living in the suburbs. But she's still a more realistic parent than Rachel Green. Nell Frizzell is the author of Holding the Baby: Milk, Sweat and Tears from the Frontline of Motherhood
