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Academy Award-winning writer-director Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman, Saltburn) joined forces with two of Hollywood's favorites for her third feature film: Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. And you'd think that combination would thrill audiences, but instead, it led to a ton of outrage. Why? Because that third feature film is a reimagining of Emily Brontë’s beloved 1847 gothic romance tale Wuthering Heights.

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Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Elordi as Heathcliff, the star-crossed lovers at the heart of the classic drama, raised casting concerns from fans. Many folks thought the Barbie star was too old to play Catherine and that Elordi wasn't racially ambiguous enough to play Heathcliff. Still, fans flocked to the theaters to see the over-the-top romance anyway.

Fennell herself put intentional quotation marks around the title, as her modern adaptation of the period drama is radically different than the original. If you missed it in theaters or want to watch it again, here's everything you need to know to catch Wuthering Heights from your couch.

What is Wuthering Heights about?

The bones of the 2026 adaptation of Wuthering Heights are essentially the same as Brontë's classic: Catherine is a motherless rich girl being raised by an alcoholic father and Heathcliff is a poor kid adopted to be raised alongside her. They run wild in the moors of West Yorkshire, England and develop a deep connection. They grow into hot adults (Robbie and Elordi) and their preternatural connection becomes an all-consuming romance. But Catherine longs for luxury and there's no future with Heathcliff, so she agrees to marry the wealthy neighbor Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif). Heathcliff, feeling betrayed, runs away, only to return five years later a wealthy man himself.

Check out the official trailer for a glimpse at Wuthering Heights:

Is Wuthering Heights worth watching?

Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights has truly divided (and outraged) the internet. To put it simply, this is not the adaptation of Brontë’s Victorian classic fans were expecting.

The movie currently holds a 57 percent critic rating and 76 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which feels like a pretty accurate representation. Mashable's own lead film critic Kristy Puchko was largely unenthused by the adaptation. "Instead of a cohesive re-imagining or even a titillating romance, Wuthering Heights feels like a passionate but incoherent collage of teenage lust and rebellion, the kind better suited to a high school locker than a movie theater," she writes in her review.

Whether it's worth a watch is highly debatable, but one should certainly adjust their expectations before going in.

Check out Mashable's full review of Wuthering Heights.

How to watch Wuthering Heights at home Credit: Warner Bros.

As of April 1, there are a couple of ways you can watch Wuthering Heights at home: buy it or rent it at digital-on-demand retailers. We're still waiting for details on its streaming debut. We've broken down the details below.

Buy or rent on digital

Wuthering Heights"made its at-home debut at digital-on-demand retailers on March 31, 2026. You can purchase the film for your digital library for $24.99 or rent it for $5 less. If you choose to rent, you'll get access for 30 days, but just 48 hours once you start watching.

Quick links to buy/rent Wuthering Heights on digital:

• Apple TV — buy for $24.99, rent for $19.99

• Fandango at Home — buy for $24.99, rent for $19.99

• Prime Video — buy for $24.99, rent for $19.99

• YouTube — buy for $24.99, rent for $19.99

Stream it on HBO Max (at a later date)

While we haven't got word on a specific streaming release date yet for Wuthering Heights, we do know that it will make its debut on HBO Max.

Warner Bros. Pictures theatrical releases exclusively stream on HBO Max before anywhere else. If Emerald Fennell’s reimagining of the Brontë classic follows a similar theater-to-streaming trajectory as other recently released Warner Bros. movies — like One Battle After Another, Weapons, and The Conjuring: Last Rites — we estimate that it will hit HBO Max sometime in May 2026.

HBO Max subscriptions start at $10.99 per month, but there are some ways to save some money on your plan. Check out the best HBO Max streaming deals below.

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The best way to save on HBO Max on any given day is to sign up for the annual plan over the monthly plan. The HBO Max Basic plan with ads typically costs $10.99 per month, but if you pay for an entire year upfront, that price drops down to just $9.17. You'll pay $109.99 total for the year, which saves you about 16% compared to paying each month.

Don't want to deal with ads? The annual HBO Max Standard or Premium plans will also save you about 16% over their monthly equivalents. The Standard tier costs either $18.49 per month or $184.99 per year (about $15.42 per month), while the Premium tier costs either $22.99 per month or $229.99 per year (about $19.17 per month). Both tiers unlock ad-free viewing, but the Premium tier also adds 4K Ultra HD video quality, Dolby Atmos immersive audio, and the ability to download more offline content.

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There's a big incentive to switching your phone plan to Cricket's $60 per month Supreme Unlimited plan: free HBO Max. When you open up the HBO Max app or website, you'll just select Cricket as your provider and use your credentials to log in.

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College students can watch Wuthering Heights when it hits streaming with an entire year of HBO Max with ads for half price. Use UNiDAYS to prove your student status and retrieve a unique discount code that drops the price from $10.99 to just $5.49 per month. After 12 months, the price will jump back up to the full $10.99 monthly fee unless you cancel.

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You'll get the most bang for your buck if you opt for the Disney+ bundle deal that includes Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max for just $19.99 per month with ads. That lineup of streamers would cost you $34.97 per month if you paid separately for each, so you'll save about $15 monthly. If you prefer to go ad-free, the bundle will run you $32.99 per month as opposed to $56.47. That's up to 42% in savings for unlimited access to all three streaming libraries.

There's a moment, familiar to anyone who has spent time in basketball corners of the internet, where someone drops a name into the chat — Kosta Koufos, Sundiata Gaines, Jamario Moon — and the room either goes electric or shakes its head in disappointment. On social media, this is called "ball knowledge."

The term has evolved from casual sports-bar shorthand into something closer to a culture and a game of one-upmanship. However, in the hands of a growing class of basketball content creators, it's become a thriving niche on social media. But ask three of the people who've helped shape that culture what ball knowledge actually means, and you'll get three different answers.

More than a name drop

The most common misconception about ball knowledge is that it's just trivia, i.e., name a player nobody remembers and look cool in front of your friends for your esoteric wisdom on early 2010s Detroit Pistons benchwarmers.

Nicholas Harrell, a writer who helps run the basketball media account halfpast*noon, pushes back on that immediately. "I wouldn't necessarily limit it to being able to name a specific role player from whatever era," he says. "I think it's got to be a recognition of how the system as a game works in its entirety, and the individual roles that those players play."

So, for example, you're in a circle with a friend, and you name-drop Nik Stauskas as "elite ball knowledge." That's table stakes, the bare minimum. Explaining why Stauskas worked — or why he didn't — is the real test.

Nick Coutracos, who has built a following under the name Nick Knows Ball, takes a similar but slightly more democratic view. For him, ball knowledge is "not only knowing players that the average basketball fan wouldn't know, but it's also just understanding how the game of basketball is played." He's careful to add that "you can't just know a random role player that you saw once and remember his name and say, oh yeah, that's ball knowledge."

The distinction matters to him. Coutracos, who was already running a successful basketball media account, didn't start posting about ball knowledge to gatekeep — he started because he was frustrated watching posts celebrate knowing names like Brandon Jennings and Kirk Hinrich and calling it elite ball knowledge. "I remember scrolling through these comments, reading them like, this is a joke, right?" He started posting ball-knowledge-specific videos, including stories about obscure players and reactions to other pages' "elite pulls," and quickly found that his audience felt the same quiet indignation. Ball knowledge was getting too casual, and people wanted a higher standard.

Ethan Ward, the New Zealand–born, Australia-based creator behind ForgottableNBA, came at it from a different angle. His page — which he started in September 2024, hitting 10,000 followers within two months — is built around short clips and literary captions about players on the fringes of NBA history. He describes ball knowledge the way a connoisseur might describe wine: There are levels, the bar is always rising, and what counts today might not count tomorrow.

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"If they started for a full season, it's probably not ball knowledge," Ward says. "Especially with the way this kind of genre has ballooned — the threshold is being raised every three months."

Ward's origin story is more accidental. He was thinking about what he calls "a gap in the market" — the fact that he had near-infinite access to play-by-play clips from any NBA season going back years from his freelance work. He started with a single clip, a missed Cory Joseph floater. The post read "Forgettable NBA Moment No. 1: Cory Joseph tries to beat the clock but fails." People liked it. As more clips got posted, someone asked for a box score. Then the write-ups got longer. Six months in, Ward was doing full long-form posts, and the responses started coming in within hours of posting.

"I didn't realize there was such an appetite for it," Ward says.

What is ball knowledge?

Every culture has its own vocabulary, and the ball knowledge community is no exception. Over hours of conversation, a surprisingly nuanced taxonomy emerged.

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There is, first, the question of what makes someone a "pull" — a term for a player whose name earns respectable nods from your friends when dropped in conversation, for a relative combination of obscurity and nostalgia. Coutracos, Ward, and Harrell agree that the best pull is what the latter calls "obscure and recognizable at the same time." He considers Chris Copeland a good example: a six-foot-nine forward who had one memorable run with the 2013 Knicks, could get hot from three, and left enough of an imprint that real watchers of the game remember him fondly. Arnett Moultrie, by contrast, was a process-era 76er who was miscast as a PF who couldn't shoot in an evolving NBA. He's a respectable pull for only the most hardened of zealots.

Then there is the question of the baseline — the floor of ball knowledge, the name that separates people who genuinely follow the game from people who are just adjacent to it. Every creator has one, and the differences reveal just how personal and relative that floor really is.

For Coutracos, the marker is Kosta Koufos. "[He] is the differentiating factor between ball knowledge and not ball knowledge," he says. "He's the most common ball knowledge player, in my opinion."

Harrell's threshold is a bit more sentimental. He mentions Sundiata Gaines, who hit a game-winner with the Utah Jazz and had a memorable run at Georgia in the SEC tournament. Gaines isn't famous, but he's not buried, either. "If people did recognize him, their eyes are going to light up right away," Harrell says. "That's sort of the fun part of it."

Ward, who spent his teenage years watching G League games out of New Zealand, sets the floor considerably deeper, depending on how you look at it. For him, the baseline is simply anyone with a reason to exist in memory: "Someone who has a reason to be remembered. Someone who played a couple years. That would be my current parameters for someone starting out." What that baseline actually looks like, though, shifts constantly.

There is also a category of "overused pull." These are names that became so widely circulated they've lost their value. All three agree without much deliberation: Shaun Livingston's mid-range jumper. Brandon Bass. J.R. Smith reverses dunks. These names have been laundered through so many posts that knowing them signals that you're chronically online, not that you know basketball.

The rules, unwritten and otherwise

A few informal laws of ball knowledge have emerged from the community's ongoing self-governance.

Draft position matters. A lottery pick — even a catastrophic bust — carries an asterisk. Anthony Bennett, the infamous 2013 number-one overall pick who never lived up to his draft position, falls in a gray area: Coutracos thinks he should count because the average fan has probably forgotten him, but acknowledges the logic isn't clean. Alex Len, a top-five pick from that same draft, gets an easy veto. "Top five pick within the last 10 or 15 years — no," Harrell says flatly.

Visibility also counts against you. Kirk Hinrich was a solid NBA role player for roughly a decade, which means he showed up on too many screens to qualify as obscure. College prominence doesn't help either, as a player like Trey Burke gets docked by Ward for his Wooden Award–winning career at Michigan, his deep March Madness run, and his my-player-mode appearances in NBA 2K. That's too much cultural footprint. So players like Shabazz Napier, Jimmer Fredette, or Carsen Edwards wouldn't count as ball knowledge on account of their legendary college runs.

But the most interesting rule is the one about relativity. Ball knowledge, all three creators acknowledge, is context-dependent. Coutracos put it simply: "My 11-year-old cousin comes up to me and talks about Ramon Sessions — whoa, that is very impressive. But if you label yourself an all-knowing ball knower and you're 25 years old and you say Ramon Sessions, it's like, OK, that's not that crazy."

"It's relative," he says. "There are levels."

What's it done for the game

The rise of ball knowledge as a genre has had a measurable effect on how NBA history gets consumed online. Players who spent their careers as footnotes are suddenly the subjects of highlight compilations, long-form write-ups, and spirited comment-section debates.

Ward's ForgettableNBA page is perhaps the clearest expression of this shift. His audience isn't just nodding along. They're asking for box scores. They're pulling up Wikipedia tabs. They're arguing, respectfully, about whether a given player qualifies. A Jason Maxiell compilation went viral within a day of posting. A Rodney Hood write-up got people talking about a player who'd been largely forgotten.

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"I kind of bridge the gap between the totally obscure players and the role players that everybody likes," Ward says. He describes a sort of natural selection at work: The players with "verve," with a distinct shot or move or storyline, age better in the culture than the workhorses without it. A player with a reliable midrange is more memeable than a screen-setter. A player with a compelling backstory — like Royce White, the first-round pick who never played due to an anxiety disorder affecting his ability to fly — edges toward ball knowledge even as his career stats don't demand it.

"There's something [where] you go, 'I remember him for a reason,'" Ward says.

Harrell points to what the trend has done for fandom broadly, creating a shared language for the kinds of conversations that used to happen only between lifelong fans at sports bars or on the couch during rain delays. "The general basketball community on TikTok started pushing forward this sports-bar kind of conversation," he says. "Naming role players with your friends almost."

Coutracos has watched it become something even more personal. He gets recognized at pickup gyms. He gets tagged in posts about players he's never covered. His comment sections have become arenas where people prove their knowledge or cheerfully get corrected. "I don't want to give off the vibe of gatekeeping the sport," he says. "My main goal is for them to learn about basketball and laugh a little too."

Raising the bar

There's one thing all three creators seem quietly anxious about: saturation.

Names that were genuinely obscure six months ago now have compilation videos and Reddit threads. The posts that used to require actual recall are getting gamed by people who've simply been online long enough to absorb the canon.

"The goalposts are going to keep moving," Ward says. He imagines a near future where Gigi Datome — the Italian forward who had a brief cup of coffee with the Detroit Pistons — stops being an elite pull and becomes a baseline. "Unless it reaches a point of saturation where it doesn't quite get there. I hope Austin Daye stays Detroit-specific knowledge."

Harrell frames it as an authenticity problem. "If your single memory of Shaun Livingston is the mid-range and not everything that came before in his career — which is even more interesting — that's a good example of fake ball knowledge versus real ball knowledge."

But here, too, there's consensus: The solution isn't exclusion, it's depth. All three push back on the idea that ball knowledge should become a velvet rope, a way to dismiss people who aren't sufficiently obsessed.

"I don't want people to be discouraged by learning about the sport of basketball," Coutracos says. "Just because you don't know a random player from 2012 who played seven games doesn't mean you shouldn't continue to learn about the sport."

Harrell is even more direct: "I wouldn't want it used as a barrier to entry for certain conversations. I don't want it to become a status symbol, necessarily."

What they want, it turns out, is for more people to go down the rabbit hole. To look up Sundiata Gaines. To find out how Kosta Koufos actually played. To discover that Jamario Moon had a dunk package that holds up, and that he played seventy-something games with the Raptors before losing games for Michael Jordan's Bobcats.

That's the core of it, really. Do you know ball? You could.

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult if you're a control freak.

Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?

The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for April 3, 2026 Here's a hint for today's Connections categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Spiteful

• Green: To crave

• Blue: Drinkware

• Purple: Have it in check

Here are today's Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Catty

• Green: Hanker (For)

• Blue: Cocktail glasses

• Purple: ___ Control

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections #1026 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Catty: MEAN, PETTY, SMALL, SNIDE

• Hanker (For): JONES, LONG, LUST, THIRST

• Cocktail glasses: COLLINS, HURRICANE, ROCKS, ZOMBIE

• ___ Control: CRUISE, DAMAGE, GROUND, MISSION

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for April 3, 2026

Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today's puzzle.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.

Today's NYT Strands hints are easy if you're a clean eater.

Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for April 3, 2026 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Smooth(ie) operator

The words are related to healthy snacks.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe island plants.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Tropical Fruit.

Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today

NYT Strands word list for April 3

• Acai

• Lychee

• Guava

• Pineapple

• Mangi

• Papaya

• Tropical fruit

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.

Today's Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you're a timekeeper.

If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for April 3, 2026 Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. 

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today

What's the best Wordle starting word?

The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.

SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for April 3, 2026 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

After.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

There are no recurring letters.

Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...

Today's Wordle starts with the letter S.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. The Wordle answer today is...

Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.

Drumroll please!

The solution to today's Wordle is...

SINCE

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints. Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Wordle.

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hint

To deteriorate.

SEE ALSO: Apple’s new M3 MacBook Air is $300 off at Amazon. And yes, I’m tempted. Hurdle Word 1 answer

ERODE

Hurdle Word 2 hint

A marine predator.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for April 3, 2026 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

SHARK

Hurdle Word 3 hint

A sticky liquid.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for April 3 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for April 3, 2026 Hurdle Word 3 answer

SERUM

Hurdle Word 4 hint

A god or goddess.

Hurdle Word 4 answer

DEITY

Final Hurdle hint

They love to play.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answer

GAMER

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Artemis II has officially left Earth's neighborhood, with the Orion spacecraft now on a three-day leg of the deep space journey toward the moon.

After NASA polled "go" on translunar injection — or TLI, the key engine firing — flight controllers commanded the maneuver just before 8 p.m. ET on Thursday, April 2, less than 24 hours after the historic mission launched from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. 

For the U.S. space agency, this moment is the real point of no return in a carefully orchestrated test flight. It's the last major engine firing of the mission. The burn not only pushes the capsule toward the moon, it also serves as the same critical maneuver that will eventually bring the astronauts home. 

That's riskier than NASA's usual spaceflights. On the International Space Station, astronauts circle Earth every hour and a half. If something goes wrong, they're never more than about 90 minutes from an emergency landing. But on Artemis II, as soon as controllers take this step, NASA has committed to the rest of the mission, save a couple of options for a U-turn, said crewmate Christina Koch. 

"Wrapping our heads around that is very interesting," said Koch, who is heading up those procedures, during a pre-launch news conference. "Before we go into some of our entry [simulations], we talk about how, 'Hey, there's no canceling the countdown on this — we are re-entering,' but the truth is, we are re-entering at the moment we do TLI."

SEE ALSO: Artemis II launches its historic moon mission: See the launch and mission details

The 10‑day Artemis II flight, led by Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Jeremy Hansen and Koch, aims to pave the way for a moon-landing during Artemis IV as early as 2028. This mission tests the resources needed for that upcoming journey: NASA's powerful rocket, the Orion spacecraft, and the teams on the ground who guide them. 

In future Artemis missions to the moon, the agency wants astronauts to practice living for longer periods away from Earth before pushing on to Mars, where crews will need far more extraterrestrial survival skills. 

NASA's Artemis II mission launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 6:35 p.m. ET April 1, 2026. Credit: NASA / Joel Kowsky

So far the crew has set up the spacecraft toilet — with a few setbacks — and performed a piloting demonstration for steering toward and around the spent propulsion system. The exercise was meant to test how Orion's manual controls handle, as this will become necessary in future missions for docking with moon landers in space. 

The astronauts are also acclimating to life inside the capsule. The cabin has had unexpectedly cold temperatures. The crew unpacked extra long-sleeve shirts from their suitcases to try to warm up. 

At the end of Flight Day 1, the astronauts' sleep was disrupted by a middle-of-the-night, brief engine firing to adjust Orion's orbit around Earth. The ill-timed operation was part of the plan, and the crew returned to their sleeping bags for a few more hours of rest before the translunar injection burn. 

Koch set up Orion's system for the burn, performed by Orion's main engine on the European Service Module. The system provides enough thrust to accelerate a car from zero to 60 mph in less than three seconds.

Over a 10-day spaceflight, the Artemis II crew will fly around Earth and then the moon, testing the Orion spacecraft's life-support systems. Credit: NASA infographic

The roughly six-minute engine firing was necessary to speed up the spacecraft so that it could escape Earth's gravitational pull. This technique allows the astronauts to travel without having to make major course corrections along the way. 

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The burn has reshaped the spacecraft's path into a long loop that will carry them out a quarter‑million miles from home. It will also harness the moon's gravity to slingshot Orion back to Earth. This is the first time since 1972 that humans have left Earth's orbit. 

The mission configuration is what's known as a free-return trajectory, said Lakiesha Hawkins, an exploration systems development administrator.

"This is something that we've experienced before," she said. "If you recall in your history, we did that on Apollo 8 and Apollo 13." 

Google just released the latest version of its open AI model, Gemma 4, on Thursday. Crucially, Gemma 4 is a fully open-source model licensed under Apache 2.0, which is typically not the case with frontier models.

Open models can be run locally on users' devices, and Google says Gemma 4 can be run on "billions of Android devices" and some laptop GPUs.

"This open-source license provides a foundation for complete developer flexibility and digital sovereignty; granting you complete control over your data, infrastructure, and models," a Google blog post reads. "It allows you to build freely and deploy securely across any environment, whether on-premises or in the cloud."

Most people have likely heard of Google's popular Gemini AI model, thanks to the ubiquitous AI chatbot that's been integrated into many of Google's products.

Gemma is also a large language model (LLM) and was developed from the exact same technology and research that Google DeepMind used to build Gemini 3.

Google is calling Gemma 4 its "most capable" open AI model yet.

Gemma vs. Gemini?

So, how is Gemma different from Gemini?

Gemini is Google's proprietary subscription AI product, and the name of Google's family of multimodal AI models. Gemini has been integrated into virtually all of Google's core products, including Google Search, Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Cloud.

Gemma 4, however, is an open AI model, meaning that the code and data that it's trained on are shared with its user base. Gemma AI models can be run off of a user's local hardware, even without an internet connection. Anyone can download Gemma 4 and run it off their device for free. These open AI models provide a more private and secure experience, as none of the chats, uploaded files, or answers are shared with a third party.

Developers could use open AI models like Gemma 4 in order to integrate AI into their own applications without the need for any recurring subscription costs.

What is Gemma 4?

Gemma 4 brings some advanced capabilities to Google's open AI model family.

According to Google's announcement, Gemma 4 is now capable of advanced reasoning, which includes multi-step planning and deep logic. Google says it has made "significant improvements in math and instruction-following benchmarks that require it" with Gemma 4.

Gemma 4 now also supports processes that are required for agentic workflows and localizes AI coding assistance. In addition, Gemma 4 can process audio and video for speech recognition and interpreting visuals such as charts. 

Gemma 4 is available in four sizes based on the number of weights used to power the model: two billion, four billion, 26 billion, and 31 billion.

Hugging Face reports that these open-weight models are available in pre-trained and instruction-tuned variants, offering even more flexibility for developers.

The AI model has been trained on more than 140 languages and has a context window up to 256,000 tokens, according to Google. (The smaller E2B and E4B variants have a context window of 128,000, however.)

Gemma 4 is now open and open source

Now, open doesn't mean open source when it comes to AI models.

Previous iterations of Gemma were open-weight (meaning the training datasets are publicly available) but were still bound by Google's terms, even if users were allowed to download the model onto their device. While users could modify the local LLM, they still had to operate under Google's rules on its use and redistribution.

With Gemma 4, Google has now made the model open and open source.

Google is distributing Gemma 4 under the popular open source software license Apache 2.0.

Under this license, anyone can download and modify Gemma 4 and use it for any purpose, whether for personal or commercial use cases. Gemma 4 can be redistributed without any royalty requirements as well. Basically, the only requirement under the Apache 2.0 license is attribution, and the license must be distributed alongside the AI model.

Looking for Gemma 4? Hot to try it.

Gemma 4 can be found in Google AI studio and can be downloaded from third-parties such as  Hugging Face, Kaggle, or Ollama.

SAVE $500: The Mova Z60 Ultra Roller Complete robot vacuum and mop is on sale for $999 at Amazon, down from the list price of $1,499. That's a 33% discount and a price that matches the record low at Amazon.

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The Amazon Big Spring Sale is officially over. Now, we wait until Prime Day in June or July for the next round of massive discounts. But in the meantime, Amazon has left a few items sitting at the Big Spring Sale price. That's great news if you're looking for a powerful robot vacuum and mop.

As of April 2, the Mova Z60 Ultra Roller Complete robot vacuum and mop is on sale for $999 at Amazon, down from the list price of $1,499. That's a 33% discount that shaves $500 off the normal price. It also matches the record low at Amazon.

A bunch of robot vacuums can now mop your floors, but not all of them can do it well. The Mova Z60 Ultra Roller Complete focuses on getting both vacuuming and mopping done right. The vacuum uses 28,000Pa suction power to clean all crumbs, dirt, and dust from the floors. Plus, the brush is designed to never tangle.

SEE ALSO: Grab the Eufy Omni C20 robot vacuum and mop at its best-ever price at Amazon — save $250

The mopping functions include hot water mopping and hot-air drying of the mop pads. Plus, Mova uses an AutoShield function to ensure no drips from the mop land on the carpet. This is also an ideal model if your home has higher thresholds, since the Mova Z60 Ultra Roller Complete can get over obstacles as tall as 3.15 inches.

Pet owners are also in great shape with this model since Mova incorporated two compartments for a cleaning solution. One is designed for standard cleaning while the other is optimized for removing pet odors. The vacuum's cleaning algorithm will decide which cleaning solution to use on which areas.

Instead of staring at a never-ending list of chores, grab the Mova Z60 Ultra Roller Complete while it's on sale for under $1,000. You won't have to think about vacuuming or mopping with this powerful model.

SAVE $300: As of April 2, the Google Pixel 9 is on sale for $499 at Amazon. That's a 38% discount on the list price.

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In the market for a new smartphone? If signing up to a two-year contract isn't what you're looking for, this latest Amazon deal lets you buy the Google Pixel 9 outright for $499. It's normally priced at $799, so you're saving $300.

For this low price, you can choose between the obsidian and porcelain color options. For slightly more ($575), you can pick up the wintergreen model. This is an unlocked phone, so you can use it with the network provider of your choice.

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This phone is built around Google’s AI features, so it truly lives up to its smartphone name. It has Gemini (Google’s generative AI) integrated with almost everything, helping with everyday tasks and searches.

The phone also has a 50MP main camera and a 48MP ultrawide lens. And even these are enhanced with its AI tools. Features like Best Take, Magic Editor, and Add Me will enhance photos and make edits easier. Additional smart features include Pixel Screenshots for saving useful information, and instead of typing, use Gemini Live.

You can find this Google Pixel deal online at Amazon now.

SAVE $70: As of April 2, the Beats Studio Buds+ are on sale for $99.95 at Amazon. That's a 41% discount on list price.

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Beats earbuds for under $100? It's not a belated April Fools' joke — this deal is back at Amazon for a limited time.

As of April 2, the Beats Studio Buds+ are down to their best price since July 2025, just $99.95. This is a $70 discount, and you can even choose between three colorways: black, ivory, or transparent.

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They're a truly great pair of earbuds, with impressive sound quality thanks to Beats’ custom acoustic platform. You’ll get support for spatial audio for a more surround-style listening experience as well as both Active Noise Cancelling and Transparency modes, letting you control how much of your surroundings you hear.

For the battery life, you'll get up to nine hours of listening on a single charge. This is extended to 36 hours with the charging case. They're also a great workout companion thanks to their IPX4 water and sweat resistance. Plus, they come with four different silicone tip sizes to make sure you have a comfortable, secure fit.

This Beats deal has a "limited-time" stamp at Amazon, so if you need some new earbuds, don't miss out on this deal.

TL;DR: Give your kids the gift of safe screen time with this lifetime subscription to Pok Pok, currently on sale for just $59.99 (reg. $250).

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Tired of the never-ending mom and dad guilt? When it comes to the world of parenting online, it often feels like you just can’t win. That’s why Pok Pok is such a breath of fresh air — it’s an educational and non-addictive way to introduce your children to screen time. A lifetime subscription is even currently on sale for just $59.99 (reg. $250).

If you’re ready to make parenting a little easier, it’s time to introduce your kids to Pok Pok. This app provides a safe, calm screen time experience that uses a Montessori-based approach — emphasizing hands-on learning, independence, and natural development. That means little ones can navigate the app on their own, and learn STEM concepts, language, and numbers in the process.

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Pok Pok doesn’t have any rules — there are no levels, no objectives, and most importantly, no winners or losers. It just lets children have fun while learning and interacting with hand-drawn animations and low-stimulation, in-house-made sound effects.

While many apps marketed to children are loud, bright, and noisy, the award-winning Pok Pok was created with early childhood experts to enrich and support a child’s development. It’s also COPPA-certified and GDPR compliant, so you don’t have to worry that your children will be tricked into making purchases while they play.

This subscription to Pok Pok includes access to new content, plus seasonal and cultural updates for life. You’ll also receive a surprise gift delivered to your doorstep.

Get your own lifetime subscription to Pok Pok for only $59.99 (reg. $250) now.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

SAVE UP TO $200: As of April 2, the KitchenAid KF6 fully automatic espresso machine is on sale at Amazon for $1,049.99 (reg. $1,199.99). For a step up, the KitchenAid KF8 espresso machine is also on sale for $1,799.99 (reg. $1,999.99) — a saving of $200.

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$1,999.99 Save $200   Get Deal

If your morning routine begins with endless cups of regular old coffee, it might be time for an upgrade. With an at-home espresso machine, you can start your day with barista-quality specialty drinks without stepping out of your kitchen. While it's not the cheapest investment, it'll certainly put a new pep in your step. Plus, two fully automatic models from KitchenAid are currently on sale for up to $200 off if you're not looking to pay full price.

As of April 2, the KitchenAid KF6 fully automatic espresso machine is on sale at Amazon for $1,049.99. That's 13% or $150 off the list price of $1,199.99. The even more powerful KitchenAid KF8 espresso machine is also on sale for $1,799.99 at Amazon, a $200 price drop from its usual $1,999.99. While those aren't their lowest prices on record, they are the lowest prices we've seen on these models since last summer.

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Both of these models are designed to make creating personalized drinks as easy as touching a button. There's no steep learning curve involved. You can even store the recipes you love based on strength, length, and temperature, making your morning routine a breeze. The KF6 machine allows you to choose from 15 recipe options like Espresso, Americano, Latte, Cappuccino and more, while the KF8 machine ups the options to over 40. There's even several user profiles (four for the KF6, six for the KF8), so each member of the family can have their own unique experience.

Both models offer automatic milk frothing and cleaning, but the KF8 model takes things up a notch with its own included milk container, dual milk delivery, and options for plant-based milk. Either option you choose lets you enjoy unlimited lattes, cappuccinos, and espresso shots without stepping foot in a Starbucks again.

OpenAI announced on social media today that it's launching a voice-first ChatGPT experience in CarPlay, the popular Apple dashboard that many drivers use in their car's infotainment system.

That means drivers with Apple CarPlay and supported iPhone models can now talk to ChatGPT Voice as they drive, bringing the AI chatbot on the road.

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iPhone users will need to be running iOS 26.4 to activate the hands-free feature.

How to use ChatGPT Voice in Apple CarPlay Total Time

• 1-2 minutes

What You Need

• iPhone running iOS 26.4+ and a vehicle with Apple CarPlay

Step 1: Update your iPhone to iOS 26.4

Step 2: Update the ChatGPT app to the latest version available in the App Store.

Step 3: Connect your iPhone to Apple CarPlay

Step 4: Open ChatGPT and begin chatting

After connecting your iPhone to CarPlay, you can then open the ChatGPT app and start a new voice conversation or continue an existing chat.

However, the new ChatGPT Voice experience in CarPlay does have some notable limitations. Crucially, it can't help you with navigation or act agentically.

SEE ALSO: How to use Apple CarPlay with your iPhone

According to an OpenAI help page, "It cannot access maps, vehicle information, or live location," nor can it "control your car or affect other apps (for example, Maps or messaging apps like Mail or Slack)."

OpenAI also includes a safety warning for drivers on its help page. "Only use your mobile device when allowed by law and when conditions permit safe use. Set up the app before driving, rely on hands-free, voice-first features whenever possible, and avoid interacting with your device while the vehicle is in motion."

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

OpenAI said the deal would help it “create a space for a real, constructive conversation about the changes A.I. creates.”

Orion is in space, the Artemis II crew will head to the moon, and you can follow their journey without leaving Earth.

NASA's Artemis Real-time Orbit Website, or AROW, allows the public to track the moonship. During the roughly 10-day test flight, anyone with a phone or computer can see how far the crew — Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — are from Earth.

The tracker turns a complex deep space mission into something easier to understand at a glance. With data from sensors on the spacecraft, AROW takes information already flowing to mission control in Houston and interprets it into simple visuals for the layperson. Instead of trying to picture where the crew might be, you can actually see their path, distances, and major milestones as they happen.

SEE ALSO: Artemis 2 mission timeline: An itinerary for the historic 10-day flight

People can download the NASA app or go to the website to give the tracker a spin. 

AROW began updating about a minute after liftoff on Wednesday, April 1, and will keep feeding live information until Orion dives back into Earth's atmosphere for a splashdown at the end of the mission. Online, users can see where the spacecraft sits in space and trace its figure-eight route.

NASA's Artemis Real-time Orbit Website provides the public with information about the Artemis II moon mission as it happens. Credit: NASA / AROW screenshot

NASA designed the website to show more than a dot on a map. It highlights key moments in the mission and points out features on the moon, including landing sites from the Apollo program. That lets viewers connect what they’re seeing today through Artemis — named after Apollo's twin sister in Greek mythology — with the first era of human exploration on the lunar surface.

The NASA app includes similar features, plus an augmented reality tracker. After calibration, the app uses phone sensors to tell you how to move your device so on‑screen markers line up with where Orion is relative to your position on Earth. 

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For people who love to pore through the numbers, AROW also shares precise data describing Orion's location and motion.

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Since launch, the crew has been in a high-Earth orbit, allowing them time to check out the systems aboard the spacecraft before pushing into a moon-bound trajectory.

Artemis II is NASA's first crewed mission in the Artemis campaign and a major step toward landing on the moon and learning how to live there. By sending astronauts around the moon and bringing them home safely, NASA is attempting to prove the systems needed for future lunar landings — and, perhaps down the road, the first human mission to Mars.

You might not know this, but AirDrop isn't exclusive to Apple devices.

So, if you've grown tired of hearing your Apple friends say, "Just AirDrop it to me," there may be a solution.

The over-the-air file sharing feature is synonymous with iPhones (as well as iPads and Mac devices), but Google recently made it available on select Pixel devices, too. All you need to do is tap the Quick Share button on the content you want to send to a nearby Apple device, and as long as their AirDrop settings are open for business, you'll be able to AirDrop the photo or document to them.

However, not all Pixel phones support AirDrop.

SEE ALSO: iPhone 18 Pro will be missing a popular color, leaker says Every Pixel phone that can use AirDrop

Here is the full list of every Pixel phone that can AirDrop content with Apple devices:

• Pixel 9

• Pixel 9 Pro

• Pixel 9 Pro XL

• Pixel 9 Pro Fold

• Pixel 10

• Pixel 10 Pro

• Pixel 10 Pro XL

• Pixel 10 Pro Fold

• Pixel 10a

In other words, it's only compatible with the Pixel 9 and Pixel 10 families. There is one notable exception, however: The Pixel 9a does not support AirDrop via Quick Share. Anyone with Google's mid-range Pixel 9 device will need to upgrade to take advantage of this feature.

And hopefully Google can keep this useful feature around for future Pixel releases, too.

For the first time in 50 years, human beings are more than 1,000 miles away from Earth as the historic Artemis II mission continues.

The four astronauts aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft — Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen — are currently circling the Earth and preparing for a potential translunar injection later today.

As they look toward the moon, NASA also shared a picture looking back at the Earth, which appears as a crescent in the black of space.

While it might look like the moon at first, this picture depicts the Earth as seen from the Orion spacecraft. Credit: NASA

The picture shared by NASA is a screenshot from the Orion livestream, available via YouTube. It shows part of the Orion spacecraft as it travels around the Earth.

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The picture calls to mind another iconic NASA photograph, known as "Earthrise."

Taken by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders on Dec. 24, 1968, the famous "Earthrise" photograph depicts the Earth rising above the ghostly lunar horizon.

The 'Earthrise' photograph captured the Earth rising above the surface of the moon. Credit: Bill Anders / NASA

"Earthrise" is one of the most famous space photographs ever taken. Apollo 8 astronauts were the first to orbit the moon, and thus the first-ever humans to witness Earthrise in person. And like the Apollo 8 astronauts before them, the crew of Orion is aiming for a lunar orbit.

SEE ALSO: What 'home' will look like for the Artemis 2 crew headed to the moon

Artemis II astronauts will not set foot on the moon during the planned 10-day lunar mission. However, they could travel further away from home than any human being in history, reaching a distance of 248,700 miles, breaking a record set by Apollo 13 astronauts in 1970.

For now, the four-person Orion crew is still in orbit around the Earth, where they reached a maximum height of 46,000 miles. Later today, mission control will decide whether the historic lunar mission is a go or no-go. Should the mission proceed, Orion will leave Earth's orbit and head toward the moon.

If Orion forges ahead, they're scheduled to slingshot around the moon on April 6 before returning to Earth on April 10 or 11.

The Artemis II mission is part of a larger plan to establish a crewed lunar base, and potentially even a Martian base in the future.

You can track the progress of the Orion crew via the NASA website or app.

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There's a new screen-free way to dive into the joy of Pokémon. Freshly introduced today, the two-player Guess Who? Pokémon Edition Game is up for grabs at Amazon.

Opens in a new window Credit: Hasbro Guess Who? Pokémon Edition $24.99 at Amazon
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The Pokémon version of Guess Who? plays like the standard version, but instead of asking, "Is your person bald?" you'll get to ask fun questions like, "Is your Pokémon a water type?" The first player to guess five mystery Pokémon's first is crowned the champion.

Credit: Habro Credit: Hasbro

Each game comes with two double-sided sheets full of characters to guess, totaling 48 Pokémon and eight types. A round of Guess Who? usually takes about 15 minutes to complete which makes this a great quick game for road trips or when the kids have a friend over.

So far, the game is exclusively available at Amazon, but we'll keep this page updated if we see it pop up at other retailers. Happy guessing!

Honestly, I wasn't sure we needed more of The Handmaid's Tale.

When Season 1 premiered during the early months of the first Donald Trump presidency, it struck a nerve, reflecting real-life concerns over the decline of women's rights and the rise of authoritarianism. Those concerns are more relevant than ever during Trump's second presidency, as the administration continues to systematically attack women and queer people in ways that recall the Christo-fascist nightmare of Gilead.

SEE ALSO: 'The Testaments' trailer: 'Handmaid's Tale' sequel sees June's baby all grown up

Yet between these presidencies, and between The Handmaid's Tale's start and finish, the series lost its way. After Season 1, it moved beyond Margaret Atwood's novel, and in its efforts to outdo our own growing dystopia, it turned into a grim, self-indulgent spectacle.

Much of that grimness remains on display in The Testaments, a follow-up series based on Atwood's 2019 novel of the same name. However, the show also finds something new — and perhaps even hopeful — to say, and that's all thanks to its focus on the younger generations growing up in Gilead.

The Testaments focuses on the youth of Gilead. The ensemble of "The Testaments." Credit: Disney / Russ Martin

The Testaments introduces viewers to a new tier of Gilead's rigid hierarchy: the Plums. Named after the distinct shade of purple they wear, Plums are the young daughters of high-ranking Commanders. Unlike the leads of The Handmaid's Tale, they didn't have independent lives before Gilead. They don't know what they've lost, only the world they're being raised in.

The Plums are being trained for marriage at a school run by The Handmaid's Tale's Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), whose role in the series has been substantially cut down compared to her role in Atwood's novel. In fact, quite a lot has changed between the novel and the show, which builds out the sickening pageantry of the marriage process between Commanders and their child brides. From high-stakes tea parties to a ball that puts a disturbing twist on prom, The Testaments ushers its young ensemble through a fraught coming-of-age story.

Our gateway into this world is Agnes MacKenzie (Chase Infiniti), the adopted daughter of a powerful Commander. Born before the coup that established Gilead but too young to remember much of it, she has been raised in a stew of religious, patriarchal propaganda that vilifies women as temptresses. Agnes recalls how, after smiling at a boy once, she was forced to stand with her mouth taped, holding a sign reading "slut." On a field trip, Aunt Lydia's underling Aunt Vidala (Mabel Li) shows her students a group of men who have been hanged for rape. The lesson? That these men did something wrong, but so did their victim, who "liked attention."

SEE ALSO: 'Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen' review: Marriage is a killer

These horrifying "lessons" are meant to grind the girls down into perfect cogs in Gilead's machine. But they're still teenage girls, and in The Testaments' most refreshing moments, we see them acting as such. In one telling scene, the Plums recite their pre-lunch prayers, emotionlessly, as one. Once the Aunts grant them permission to "socialize," the spell of their robotic routine breaks and they launch into excited discussion. Elsewhere, they play outside, fret over their outfits, and even harbor secret crushes that they know Gilead would consider sinful. Even Gilead isn't immune from mean girl behavior, as one of Agnes' friends Shunammite (Rowan Blanchard) regularly throws shade at other students. Her disdainful delivery of "weirdos" is a welcome break from the girls' go-to "proper" dialogue about the Lord's blessings and the fine weather. (Although it does make you wonder how such slang has carried down through Gilead's years of repression.)

Between the messed-up marriage market and the disquieting school environment, The Testaments proves just as chilling as The Handmaid's Tale, but far more reserved in its depiction of atrocities. There is the occasional scene of harsh punishment, but no graphic depictions of sexual violence. The restraint is a welcome departure from the original series, and it's also one of The Testaments' greatest strengths: proof that seeing a sinister ideology take root can be more effective than a violent scene played for shock value.

The Testaments' young ensemble is remarkable. The ensemble of "The Testaments." Credit: Disney / Russ Martin

Another one of The Testaments' greatest strengths is its cast, led by One Battle After Another breakout Infiniti. Her Agnes is a bundle of repression, made to mask her greatest fears and desires below a placid exterior. As the series continues, she strains against this forced pleasantness again and again, committing small acts of rebellion that bring catharsis and further trouble. It's remarkable to watch Infiniti chart that growth, especially as Agnes' jaded voiceover suggests further rebellion down the line.

Co-leading the series is Lucy Halliday as Daisy, a Pearl Girl. These are young women from outside of Gilead who have joined the country and converted to its ways. Daisy is originally from Toronto, and, as the trailer shows, she may still have connections to Canada that prove she isn't the perfect pearl Gilead wants her to be. She's a firecracker whose rebelliousness must be dimmed if she's to survive, and Halliday plays that contrast with just the right amount of anxiety, and even a touch of dark comedy.

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The Testaments' other Plums are standouts as well. Blanchard's sassy Shunammite brings a welcome dose of comic relief to the series, yet as the season goes on, her insecurities result in some painfully vulnerable moments. Elsewhere, Mattea Conforti will break hearts as Becka. She's recently gotten her period and begun the matchmaking process, but she's less elated and more terrified of being caged. Who can blame her? While The Testaments avoids a lot of the claustrophobic close-ups that defined The Handmaid's Tale, it still evokes a sense of imprisonment. The series frequently returns to Agnes' large dollhouse, a replica of her own considerable mansion. Like her dolls, she and the other Plums are considered playthings, made to act however Gilead wishes. The effect is stifling.

At times, The Testaments' mix of The Handmaid's Tale's bleakness and coming-of-age tale doesn't quite work, such as the inclusion of a love triangle that falls into melodrama territory. However, the series finds new power in its young adult perspective, centering on people who have never known anything but authoritarianism, but who are slowly gaining the resolve to do something about it. Perhaps that messaging, combined with some of The Testaments' use of YA tropes, will speak to audiences of Agnes and Daisy's age in a way that the bleakness of The Handmaid's Tale might not be able to.

The first three episodes of The Testaments premiere Apr. 8 on Hulu, with a new episode following each week.