A recently announced San Antonio morning radio show has been delayed due to a health emergency. Via social media, country station Y100 announced that Erik & Jenny will be postponed indefinitely as host Erik Scott Smith's son is being treated in Houston. The show was slated to debut on Monday, May 5.
The morning drive-time block had been announced mere days before the planned premiere. Jenny Lee, a longtime local radio host, was set to join Smith behind the mic. The show was scheduled to air between 6-10 am on weekdays.
According to a statement from Y100, Smith's son was rushed to the emergency room on May 3. Although medical personnel have ruled out several diagnoses, the cause of the issues has not yet been determined.
"In a dark hallway is not really how I wanted to introduce myself to you today," said Smith in a video statement. "I won't be going live today because I've spent the last 48 hours living at the Texas Children's Hospital."
Erik & Jenny marked Lee's return to San Antonio airwaves after unexpectedly parting ways with 105.3 in November 2024. The new show was set to replace Tucker "Frito" Young and Katy Dempsey's show, now moved to 100.3 The Bull in Houston.
Smith said once his son is stabilized, he would work with Y100's parent company, Cox Media Group, to set a new premiere date. He is focusing all his energy on his son's health for now.
"It is heartbreaking, but at the same time, it's amazing to see what a tough little dude I've raised, and I'm just so proud of him," Erik said via video.
Sebastian Stan is Mihai, a father of five, in the Norway-set film Fjord.
In modern society, where fear of “the other” has made many people into insular creatures, it has become easy to get locked into one point of view. The new film Fjord will be a challenging one for many viewers, as it puts forth a situation that confronts narrow-minded thinking and forces even those who think they’re open-minded to re-evaluate their own biases.
Mihai (Sebastian Stan) and Lisbet (Renate Reinsve) are a married couple who have just moved back to Lisbet’s home country of Norway. They have five children, all of whom were born in Romania, Mihai’s home country. The family, which is part of an unspecified Evangelical Christian sect, runs into issues almost right away when their oldest daughter, Elia (Vanessa Ceban), shows up to school with bruises on her body.
A well-intentioned but perhaps overzealous Child Protective Services system gets put into motion, resulting in the children being removed from the home while Mihai and Lisbet are being investigated. The parents, while acknowledging some minor physical punishment, deny doing anything that would cause bruising, and the possible failings of the system mostly get ignored despite a lack of hard evidence.
Written and directed by Cristian Mungiu, the film is an infuriating watch due to its depiction of a system that seems to be oblivious to its own faults. But it’s also illuminating, as the cultural and linguistic divide that exists between the characters in the film could just as easily be applied to those viewing it. Misunderstandings arise as people switch between Norwegian, English, and Romanian, and interpretations of different words or phrases play a crucial role in how people and actions are perceived.
But the film is about much more than just language mix-ups. Mungiu is purposefully vague about Mihai and Lisbet’s religion, but it’s clear that it leans conservative. This puts them at odds with a liberal society in Norway, and more than one character voices their disapproval of the family’s beliefs. The film is framed in such a way, though, that it’s those who are seemingly most progressive who can’t get over their own prejudices, with Mihai and Lisbet rarely being able to object to how they’re being treated.
The cold and forbidding landscape adds to the drama of the film, especially when Mungiu includes side stories from Mihai and Lisbet’s neighbors about, for example, a rebellious neighbor daughter or their ailing father. While those elements don’t impact the plot much, they add complexity to the film as a whole and demonstrate that some characters are more than who they seem to be on the surface.
Stan, who’s had notable roles in recent years in A Different Man and The Apprentice, puts in another solid performance that is less showy. With a bald head and stoic-but-firm demeanor, he brings depth to a potentially unlikable character. Reinsve, coming off the success of Backrooms, is the emotional center of the film and demonstrates chemistry with Stan after co-starring in A Different Man. The supporting cast is all solid, especially the actors portraying lawyers, who bring to life a system that seems much different from that in the U.S.
Fjord does not play out like a typical American film would if it were depicting a similar situation, and by holding back where western storytellers wouldn’t, it allows viewers to make up their own minds on who is right or wrong. Many things go unspoken in the film, and the debate on what should happen with Mihai, Lisbet, and their family continues even after the film ends.
