R.I.P. Isiah Whitlock Jr

Isiah Whitlock Jr passed away yesterday at the age of 71. I guess he had an illness that took over pretty quickly and it eventually took his life. This one stings.

Whitlock was a very solid and reliable actor in his time. I know him mainly from "The Wire". He was a constant on every season of that show. He played State Senator R Clayton "Clay" Davis. Like most of the characters on that show he was slimy and up to no good. But he had his moments of clarity and showed that he did have a heart to a certain degree. Whenever he showed up on that show I knew he was going to do something memorable and wild. But it was the way he would say "Shiiiiiiit" that got me every time. That was his thing on the show. He would end sentences that way for the most part and I loved it. He was, for lack of a better term, some form of comic relief on "The Wire". He was involved in serious stuff, but he would pull out that "Shiiiiiit", and it was perfect every time. He also has a meme traveling around the internet from "The Wire", where he is snapping a photo and exclaims, "Got your ass". This is what he excelled at doing on "The Wire". He was a quote machine and he made each episode he was in so much better.

I also loved the work he did in "Da 5 Bloods", Spike Lee's criminally underrated COVID movie. He played Melvin, one of the soldiers going back to Vietnam to finish the job of spreading their friend's ashes. Again, he was the comic relief in this movie. "Da 5 Bloods" was a showcase for Delroy Lindo, but Whitlock Jr was there step for step with him. And he has a very dramatic scene in that movie that he absolutely nailed.

He appeared in seven episodes of "Veep" as Geroge Maddox. "Veep" allowed him to do straight up comedy and he was excellent. I felt like comedy was his thing, but he was cast in dramatic roles as the comic relief. He excelled in those roles, but doing a show like "Veep" felt like his bread and butter. He was so funny and so foul on "Veep", just like everyone else on that show.

He got to do more comedic stuff in movies like "Cedar Rapids". He was such a great side character in that movie, and that movie is very good. Go see it if you haven't at this point. He was on "Onion SportsDome" which allowed him to be a news anchor and also do comedy. He leant his voice to "Lucas Bros Moving Company", "Grand Theft Auto" and a "Cars" movie. His voice was perfect for voice acting. He had such a recognizable tone to his voice and when he showed up in animated stuff it was easy to pick him out of the crowd. He would show up randomly in the many different iterations of "Law and Order". This was great because he got to do stuff similar to "The Wire". But instead of playing a senator he would be a detective or cop, which felt fitting for him as an actor.

I thought it was great that he worked with Spike Lee prior to "Da 5 Bloods". He was in "ChiRaq" and "Blackklansman", doing great work in both movies. He had an arc on "The Good Cop", a show I never watched but I bet he was perfectly cast as a cop or detective. He did a few episodes on "Woke" and "Atlanta" and helped those shows simply due to his reputation as a wonderful person and actor. He was in "Cocaine Bear" and he was great in that.

That is the thing with Isaih Whitlock Jr, everyone liked to work with him and he was always reliable. Even if the project wasn't that great or well made, his presence was worthwhile. He never wasted a moment of his time while acting in a show or movie. I'm going to miss him and his work. At least we have the memes, him saying "shiiiiiiiiiit" and the hours upon hours of work he did on screen. Rest in Peace Isiah Whitlock Jr. You will be greatly missed. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Timothy Simons is the Star in the Final Season of "Veep"

For the past 6 plus seasons of the show "Veep", currently airing its 7th and final season, I have been amazed at how funny and overall great the show is. It's dark and satirical and filthy and hilarious in all the right ways. My wife and I started late on the show, binge watching the first four seasons, and now watching in real time, and it has to be one of the best comedies to ever be on TV.

The performances on “Veep” are second to none. Julia Louis Dreyfuss is so wonderful, and so very deserving of all the awards she has won. She is gritty and angry and, probably, the filthiest one on the show. Her accolades are more than deserved. Matt Walsh, in a smaller role, is goofy and dumb and a total fish out of water, which I feel like is perfect for him. Tony Hale is tremendous as Selina's aid. He is a total whipping boy, who is the boorish son that Meyer never had. Sam Richardson was a great addition. I crack up every time he is on screen. Gary Cole is always consistent, and on "Veep", he adds so much greatness. Anna Chlumsky is as dirty as anyone, and her character Amy is at times insane, but other times, you feel for her. She really crushes this role. And even some of the people that are just side characters, actors like Patton Oswalt and Diedrach Bader and Andrea Savage, among others, are wonderful. But today I want to focus on the great, and I feel underrated at times, Timothy Simons.

Simons is a gem on the show. He plays Jonah Ryan, and each and every season, just when you don't think he can get any worse, or become more of a joke, he ups the ante. He started out as basically an intern on the show, and now, in the final season, he is running for president. I mean, it's insanely funny to see him mess up at every single turn, yet failing upward. It's funny, but also a little bit scary considering the day and age we live in now. Ryan has connections in the government, and that is the only way he has moved all the way up to a presidential candidate. And man, does Simons nail this. I find myself cracking up at him every time he is on screen. He is never not funny. Every word that comes out of his mouth is wrong and rude and crude and ignorant, and I find myself laughing, and then looking internally at America right now. Jonah Ryan would fit in perfectly in current Washington D.C.

But, "Veep" isn't making him look like a real politician, I feel like, in this final season, the writers and directors and Simons are trying to show the viewers how insane politics and D.C. truly are. The last episode of "Veep" was a great representation of Simons talent to play an ignorant moron. He uses words that no one nowadays should use, and he has to go to sensitivity training, where he is so much of an asshole he makes one of the workers there cuss him out. He also has a scene at a fair where he is, sorry mom and dad, deep throating corn dogs as a joke. He is married to his step sister, and constantly gets into fights with his step dad at rallies. There was a whole scene in the season premiere where women came out and said that they never dated him, and that anytime they went out with him, it was strictly business. He is such a creep that women don't want to be associated with him. His response to this was epic and hilarious.

Timothy Simons, at least so far, has been the star of this season. I am so excited to see what they do with his character and the people that he surrounds himself with. I know it is going to be great because this show is so great, and Simons is perfectly cast. But what makes his performance so much better is the fact that he is as liberal as myself or RD. He knows he is playing a ridiculous person, and totally runs with it. He is awesome, "Veep" is awesome and lets all hope that Jonah Ryan gets the crummy sendoff that he deserves. I really hope Simons gets recognized for some kind of awards come that season because he has totally earned it. He is one the best on a show filled with awesome actors and wild characters.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He was thinking of running for President in 2020. Then Ty realized that he would be like President Not Sure, the smartest man in Washington.

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