The turkey’s been destroyed, the pie’s been reduced to crumbs, and the plates are in the dishwasher. Everyone’s starting to get restless. Then someone suggests going out to see a movie, some others murmur in agreement, and you just know you’re in for another two hours of indecision and cluelessness until it gets too late and everyone just decides to go home.

Except you’re not. Not this year. Because this year, you’ve got us to help you. 

Here’s what to watch this Thanksgiving if you’re with…

SEE ALSO: Fall movie preview: What to watch if you just want to see the best of the best

… your uncle who gets way too into his Oscar pool: The Favourite

This period piece is definitely one to know if you’re invested in the acting categories, as Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, and Emma Stone all stand a good chance of getting in. Plus, it’s just plain fun—think Thrones-level scheming, plus more oddly compelling camerawork and a healthy side of pitch-black humor. Did we also mention there are cute bunnies?

Darn it, that’s not playing nearby: The racial dynamics Green Book are… problematic, to say the least, but it’s bound to win over the same auds who previously rewarded films like The Help.

… your entire family, extended relatives included: Ralph Breaks the Internet 

SEE ALSO: ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ doesn’t get the internet quite right, but it’s smart where it matters

If you’re looking for the crowdpleaser of crowdpleasers, it’s hard to go wrong with Disney Animation. They’re second to none when it comes to entertainment gentle enough to amuse the kiddies and smart enough to impress the grown-ups, and Ralph Breaks the Internet is no exception. Just be prepared to cover the youngest ones’ eyes in that finale—things get pretty intense.

Oh no, that’s sold out: Instant Family probably won’t blow any minds, but it might warm some hearts. (Families with under-13 kids should proceed with caution, though.)

… your mother-in-law who really loves Christmas: The Grinch 

It’s an entire movie about how Christmas is not just great, but the absolute best, and will definitely, eventually soften of even hardest of cynics. Which is to say it is the perfect story for the loved one in your life who spends January through November waiting for December to come back around.

She thinks cartoons are just for kids: Well, it also doesn’t get more classically Christmas than The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, even if this version puts a new spin on that old tale.

… your parents who keep asking for movie recs: Creed II 

SEE ALSO: ‘Creed II’ is no ‘Creed’, but it packs a solid punch all the same

Creed II is an easy win, even if it’s not quite as good as Creed 1. Think sports movie plus family drama plus romance plus beefcake showcase, and then multiply it by the nostalgia that comes from seeing Rocky Balboa and Ivan Drago back onscreen. You’ll laugh, you’ll gasp, you’ll cry, and all that intergenerational drama might even inspire you to say “I love you” to each other.

Eh, sports aren’t their speed: Have they seen A Star is Born yet? They’ll probably like A Star is Born. Everybody likes A Star is Born. 

… your Friendsgiving crew: Widows  

Warm and cuddly it isn’t, but there is something kind of invigorating about watching a bunch of messed-up people coming together and finding strength in one another, and then using that new power to pull off a truly daring, dangerous heist. Hey, it’s kind of like you guys! Except you guys, presumably, commit fewer crimes. 

Duh, saw it last weekend: Prickly yet tender, Can You Ever Forgive Me? seems like it was made for watching with the family you chose.

… your sister who’s fighting off her tryptophan stupor: Overlord 

SEE ALSO: ‘Overlord’ is the revolting, breakneck Nazi zombie movie you just gotta see

If anything’s exciting enough to stave off that impending food coma, it’s gotta be the movie about killing the fuck out of some Nazi zombies. Overlord promises guts and glory, and the (very 2018) satisfaction of watching some truly horrific creatures get got. 

Uf, that’s just gonna make her sick: Robin Hood isn’t as unique as Overlord, but it’s also not as gleefully violent, and it’s got a solid cast including Taron Egerton, Jamie Foxx, and Jamie Dornan.

… your cousins who just want to get out of the house: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

SEE ALSO: ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’ is all out of magic

We’re not saying it’s a good movie; in fact, we’ve spoken at length about how very not-good it is. But it is a long movie, from a franchise pretty much everyone’s familiar with. Plus, the sheer amount of WTFery on display means there’ll be plenty to discuss after, giving you guys an excuse to hit the bar instead of just slinking back home. 

Drat, no reserved seats together: Is Bohemian Rhapsody still playing near you, maybe? Someone’s bound to have missed it, and the rest will probably be fine with rewatching what’s essentially a greatest hits album put to video.

… your grandparents who’d really prefer to stay in: The Christmas Chronicles

Admit it: At least two of the people in this room have the hots for Kurt Russell, and at least one of them is intrigued by the idea of him playing a sexy Santa. So why not just embrace it? Change into your PJs, make some hot cocoa, and have yourselves a merry old time with this ridiculous-looking movie. 

Good lord, they aren’t that cheesy: Are the Coens more their speed? If so, they’re bound to find something to love in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, an anthology of tales about the Wild West.

Welcome to No Shame November! This week we’re diving into the pop culture we love that society tells us we shouldn’t.

Dan Brown has made millions upon millions of dollars writing the same Robert Langdon book approximately five times. I can set my watch by their plot beats, see their twists coming a mile away, and pretty much tell you how each one ends before I even crack the book open. 

The literary crowd universally pans Brown’s books for their poor sentence structure, cheap thrills, and lack of coherent research. I can’t disagree with them on any of these critiques. Dan Brown’s books are objectively bad…and yet I love them. I love them very, very much. 

And anyone who thinks that makes me dumb can kick rocks. 

SEE ALSO: Podcasts were my friends when I had none

I’m fully convinced that Dan Brown writes his books using a series of Wheel of Fortune-style spinners inscribed with the names of world cities, ancient orders, and global threats. “What will ol’ Robert get up to this time?” he must ask before consulting the Wheels: 

“Langdon winds up in…[Amsterdam]…for an…[all expenses paid river cruise]…but when the…[King of Genovia] turns up dead…he enlists the help of [a plucky, attractive heart surgeon] to…[save the ozone layer] from…[Galilean ethno-communists].” Bam. Instant bestseller.

I find the Dan Brown book formula soothing. When I pick a new one up, I’m never wondering what’s going to happen as much as I am thinking about which specific variation on the single thing he knows how to write awaits me in its pages. In a literary world populated with thrillers boasting twists “you’ll never see coming,” is it so awful to be comforted by the predictable? 

Comfort aside, the thing I love most about Dan Brown’s books are the art and history lessons crammed between its dialogue and its story beats. Brown might make a lot of things up about international conspiracies, but his descriptions of some of the world’s most famous landmarks and art pieces are…sometimes more accurate. OK, he lies a lot. But that’s not a dealbreaker for me either. 

For me, a pedant, Brown’s inaccuracy is a welcome challenge. I’ve learned more about European art trying to fact-check his books than I ever did in Art Humanities class. Because of his books, I recognized Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Theresa from a distance when I went to Rome and can point out the Darth Vader–shaped carving hiding on the National Cathedral. I’ve led guided tours at the Louvre from the book I bought specifically to find out which parts of The Da Vinci Code were bullshit. 

Look, Dan Brown’s books aren’t anything close to masterpieces, but what really are masterpieces anyway? Most of the literary canon’s great works are horny and weird. Sometimes I prefer my books horny, weird, and actually fun. 

When the next Robert Langdon adventure comes out, I’ll be lining up midnight to buy it. I don’t care if they’re bad or that smart people think they’re silly; anyone who can’t find the joy in books where the main takeaways are “Jesus fucked” and “Ewan Mcgregor murdered the pope” needs to get laid. Dan Brown books kick ass. I’m not even close to ashamed of loving them. 

When your personal brand is a blunt and explicit comedian, that can be hard to turn off, even when you’re doing press for a PG rated children’s movie. 

Comedian Sarah Silverman, who voices the character Vanellope in the Wreck it Ralph sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet, had a little trouble adapting a kid-friendly tone for the promotion of the movie.

Silverman told Seth Meyers about an episode where she joked a little too candidly about the beloved video game character.

“[They] said ‘Just to remind you again, this is a children’s movie,’” Silverman said. “‘In that interview you just said that Q*Bert does coke.’”

This post is part of our High-tech High series, which explores weed innovations, and our cultural relationship with cannabis, as legalization in several U.S. states, Canada, and Uruguay moves the market further out of the shadows.

These days, there’s a lot of potent weed to choose from. Take, for example, “Grandaddy Purple,” “Matanuska Thunder Fuck,” and “Gorilla Glue # 4,” to name a few.

After the recent midterm elections, there are now 32 U.S. states where marijuana is legal for adults, recreationally, medically, or both. Increased legalization naturally opens up a larger market and incentives for businesses to grow finer, more competitive cannabis products. For better or worse, that often means marijuana strains with higher contents of THC — the natural psychoactive chemical that binds to your brain and produces a high.

But how much THC, short for Tetrahydrocannabinol, can the human mind really handle? Is there a limit? Although there’s still relatively scant scientific research about how marijuana affects the mind and body, scientists largely agree that how high you can get — even from the most potent marijuana strains — depends almost completely on an individual’s weed habits.

“It’s really dependent on the history of use in that individual,” Richard Miller, a professor of pharmacology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said in an interview. 

Our brain cells are covered in receptors, which can be thought of as docks or landing sites that chemicals like THC can bind to. Like turning a key to open a door, the binding of THC onto a receptor sets in motion a series of biological events that alters how you think and feel, creating a high. 

But like anything used too much, these receptors can become overtaxed. 

“They tend to work a little better or worse depending on how much they’re used,” said Miller.

For someone inhaling or consuming lots of cannabis, they’re likely to desensitize their brain receptors and grow a tolerance to even today’ s most potent cannabis. 

“If you flood them [receptors] with lots and lots of cannabis there might be a tendency for them to work less well,” said Miller.

“That’s something we see with all drugs,” he added. “It’s true with Aspirin, nicotine, LSD, cannabis and so on.”

SEE ALSO: Rise of the terpenes: The next wave of weed innovation focuses on a little-known compound

Still, Miller notes that scientists have much to learn about how high-potency marijuana, or concentrated THC devices like vape pens, affect us differently than other lower potency strains.  

Cinnamon Bidwell, a neurobiologist at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Institute of Cognitive Science, emphasizes that these products are simply too new. 

“Most of our data are based on very low-potency, government-grown cannabis,” Bidwell said, noting that cannabis is still federally illegal, and challenging to study. But even so, her lab has been able to begin studying how people are physiologically affected by extremely potent, concentrated cannabis products. 

“Our data suggests that there’s a tolerance,” she said. 

In that case, “Matanuska Thunder Fuck” — however potent — will likely have a dramatic affect on the causal user, but a weaker affect on the everyday marijuana consumer with overtaxed receptors. 

“It’s more a question of the pattern of use,” emphasized Miller. 

Just how potent is today’s weed, anyway?

There’s little question that potent marijuana can be easily purchased today, in states where it’s legal. (Though, there’s evidence that popular or marketed strains have similar THC concentrations — regardless of what producers advertise.) But today’s potent weed is perhaps not quite as novel as some think. 

Powerful pot has been around for a while. 

“This narrative that there are much more potent strains of cannabis flower today is just not true,” Peter Hendricks, an associate professor of health behavior at University of Alabama at Birmingham’s School of Public Health, said in an interview. “There have always been very potent strains of cannabis on the market.”

What’s more, for centuries people globally have distilled hashish — a high-concentrated THC resin — from cannabis strains, Hendricks said. 

What’s changed, he said, is that there’s not as much bad, or weak, weed around. “You’re less likely to find stains with low-THC content, whereas you may have in the past.”

Weed might generally be better, but the more significant advent — and potential problem — is the popularization of modern vaping devices that use highly-concentrated THC — with levels approaching 100 percent THC content (for reference, 20 percent THC in a cannabis plant is considered quite potent).

“Now that could be somewhat problematic,” noted Hendricks. “It could lead to use that is less mindful.”

“One can simply insert a cartridge into a device and inhale,” he added. 

And this could lead to a robust marijuana tolerance, even to the most potent cannabis products. 

“They [users] have to use a highly-concentrated product to just experience a subtle effect,” said Hendricks.  

For someone that has a low tolerance to THC, however, consuming too much cannabis or even low quantities of a highly-potent persuasion may experience a “green-out,” Hendricks said, resulting in nausea, dizziness, some disorientation. But overall, “it’s nowhere near as dangerous as alcohol or tobacco,” he said. 

It’s also important to note that many new cannabis products are also often infused with other natural THC-related compounds, commonly called terpenes, that might influence the type of experience or high — known as the “entourage effect.” Cannabis producers often cite a 2011 study when they promote the medicinal, flavor, and psychoactive effects of terpenes, but there’s a need for many more peer-reviewed studies — which is research that is viewed critically and vetted by other scientists. 

In its unaltered plant form, however, cannabis has likely been used by peoples of disparate cultures for thousands of years. Today’s strains might generally be more potent, and this means being mindful of how you use it — like any drug. 

“Like any medicine, it has to be used properly,” said Hendricks. “If we want to call this a medicine, it requires you being respectful of it.”

For the Sex and the City movie franchise, the third time won’t be the charm. 

The much talked-about third movie isn’t happening, and knowing what we know now, we’re happy that it won’t.

SEE ALSO: Sarah Jessica Parker agrees ‘Sex and the City’ was ‘tone deaf’ on diversity

John James Preston, forever the Mr. Big of our hearts, would reportedly have been killed off in the third movie. 

That explosive piece of SATC information came out on Monday’s episode of the Origins podcast hosted by journalist James Andrew Miller. In the episode, which featured interviews with all major cast members (except Kim Cattrall), Miller hinted that he has seen the script for the third movie before dropping the bombshell.

“[The script] calls for Mr. Big to die of a heart attack in the shower relatively early in the movie,” Miller said. 

That’s right, Mr. Big was going meet his early death in the comfort of his lovely Fifth Avenue bathroom. 

This bombshell was dropped while Miller was trying to get to the bottom of why actor Kim Cattrall had refused to star in the not-happening third movie. And apparently, one of the (non-money related) reasons was that Cattrall didn’t think that the script would have much to offer for her character, Samantha Jones. 

According to Miller, the main focus of the script was Carrie’s grief over Mr. Big – not totally unlike the script of the first movie, tbh – and not her relationship with the three other women. 

While Cattrall was not up for Mr. Big dying on her, the actor playing him, Chris Noth, seemed fine with the tragic fate of his character. 

“I really hate the corny stuff, that could be because I’m a little bit of a cynic,” Noth told Miller on Origins. “I heard [the third film] was really a superior script, probably from having learned from, not the first two, but at least the second one.”

Not to be morbid, but we’d love to have seen the funeral attire. 

If you’re a Game of Thrones fan but you haven’t got round to ordering George RR Martin’s epic new Targaryen history Fire and Blood yet, you’re probably consoling yourself with the thought that it can’t really contain that many Ice and Fire hints — it’s set 300 years before Martin’s main Westeros series kicks off, right?

Well, not so fast. The book may predate Daenerys & Co. by several centuries, but it still takes place in the same universe. And judging from a recent interview Martin took part in with Entertainment Weekly, the book does contain hints.

SEE ALSO: Two of the potential ‘Game of Thrones’ prequels are about the Targaryens

“There are a few that are definitely important, but I’m not going to flag them,” Martin told EW. “Readers will have to find them and puzzle out whether they’re hints or red herrings.”

“Readers will have to find them and puzzle out whether they’re hints or red herrings.”

The book, which is out on 20 November, clocks in at a solid 736 pages — so there’s plenty of material to dig through.

Elsewhere in the interview, Martin spoke about Winds of Winter again, and expressed his own frustration that the book still isn’t complete.

“I know there are a lot of people out there who are very angry with me that Winds of Winter isn’t finished,” he said. “And I’m mad about that myself. I wished I finished it four years ago. I wished it was finished now. But it’s not. And I’ve had dark nights of the soul where I’ve pounded my head against the keyboard and said, ‘God, will I ever finish this? The show is going further and further forward and I’m falling further and further behind. What the hell is happening here? I’ve got to do this.’

Martin finished by saying that finishing Fire and Blood — a book that’s entirely his writing — has been a huge emotional lift for him.

Fire and Blood is available in bookshops and online now.