Around the Tubes: 12/18/15

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth, After Hours, The Breaks, The Wonder Years, Paris Terror Attack: Charlie Hebdo, Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party, Million Dollar American Princesses, East Los High, and TNT pick ups and renewals.

- Today, Showtime has greenlit a groundbreaking new political series The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth, produced in cooperation with Bloomberg Politics and featuring Bloomberg Politics managing editors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann (co-authors of the New York Times best-sellers Game Change and Double Down, and co-hosts of the nightly political show "With All Due Respect" on Bloomberg Television) and noted campaign strategist and media advisor Mark McKinnon. The real-time documentary series will pull back the curtain on the 2016 presidential race, revealing the intense, irreverent, inspiring and infuriating stories behind the headlines of what promises to be one of the most fascinating and consequential elections in modern history. Premiering in January 2016, in advance of the Iowa caucuses, The Circus will deliver the stories as they are happening and examine what really goes on behind the carefully constructed facade of a presidential campaign in real time. The announcement was made today by David Nevins, President, Showtime Networks Inc. The Circus will follow multiple individual stories and key characters from the campaigns and capture their unique perspectives in weekly half-hour shows between January and November. With intimate, behind-the-scenes access, cameras will offer viewers a look at what the public rarely sees and explore the high human drama inherent in the pursuit of the Oval Office.

- The big day is almost upon us, the new Star Wars movie will finally hit theaters on Friday – which means we have ahead of us five glorious days of the best Star Wars content the internet can produce. The creative team at Cracked.com are starting the week off strong with a special themed episode of their Webby Award winning series After Hours, “Why the Jedi Are the Galaxy’s Biggest Idiots.” As always with After Hours, the hosts take something from pop culture they love and have a dynamic and hilarious conversation that re-contextualizes everything. In the new episode, the After Hours gang explains why the Jedi are actually terrible at their jobs. The After Hours “Star Wars” episode can be found at here.

- VH1’s new scripted movie The Breaks chronicles three friends (Mack Wilds, Afton Williamson and David Call) united by their love of hip-hop, as they work to make their big mark in the music industry. Premiering on Monday, January 4th, 2016, “The Breaks” takes viewers back to the summer of 1990 in New York City where the music industry’s artists and hustlers intersect in the dance clubs and the street corners of the city. They discover lives can be broken as fast as legends can be born. VH1’s “The Breaks,” is based on journalist Dan Charnas’ book “The Big Payback,” a narrative history of the hip-hop business. “The Breaks” cast is led by Afton Williamson (Banshee, Pariah, Man on a Ledge) and reunites “The Wire” favorites Wood Harris (Remember The Titans, Paid in Full) and Mack Wilds (90210) along with writer, director and executive producer Seith Mann (The Wire, The Walking Dead and Homeland). Newcomers David Call (Gossip Girl) along with Antoine Harris (HBO’s series Ballers and Starz’s Power), Evan Handler (Californication, Sex & The City), Russell Hornsby (Grimm, Lincoln Heights) and rapper Method Man round out the cast. “The Breaks” is scored and executive music produced by DJ Premier. “The Breaks” First Look

- For six Emmy Award®-winning seasons, The Wonder Years on ABC captured the angst of growing up in suburban middle-class America in the late '60s, as seen through the life and times of Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage). Audiences eagerly followed his evolution as a typical awkward teenager who remembered every moment of his transition from childhood with excruciating detail and remarkable hindsight. Specially-Produced Bonus Features and More Than Three Dozen Songs as Featured in the Original Broadcast, Including Classics from Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Beach Boys, The Who, Hank Williams and Many Others! Street Date: January 12, 2015.

- On Wednesday, January 7, 2015, ten months before the brutal terrorist attacks that killed 130 people in Paris, two radicalized Islamist brothers, Said and Chérif Kouachi, burst into the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, where the publication’s weekly editorial meeting was drawing to a close. The brothers murdered a total of 11 people at the offices: cartoonists, journalists, a bodyguard and a janitor. They then murdered a 12th – a Muslim police officer – in the chase that followed. One year after the attack, Paris Terror Attack: Charlie Hebdo, premieres on Monday, January 4 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Smithsonian Channel. It follows, hour by hour, the event that foreshadowed the worst terrorist attack in France in over 50 years.

- Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party, the critically acclaimed new film from writer/director Stephen Cone (The Wise Kids), will open in New York at the IFP's Made in NY Media Center on January 8th, before expanding to additional markets and VOD platforms. The film focuses on a young boy coming to terms with his sexuality during his emotionally charged birthday party. Marking his feature film debut, Cole Doman plays Henry; Henry is turning 17, and Henry might be gay. But he’s not telling his pastor father (Pat Healy, Cheap Thrills, Compliance)—not during his pool party, where school and church collide in a sunny, hormonal afternoon. This funny, heartbreakingly honest portrait from Stephen Cone finds a home between devout faith and burgeoning sexuality. Trailer

- Oscar®, Golden Globe® and Emmy® nominee Elizabeth McGovern returns to host the second season of Smithsonian Channel’s Million Dollar American Princesses, the acclaimed series whose first season chronicled the fascinating in-depth stories of real-life American heiresses who inspired the TV drama Downton Abbey. Premiering on Sunday, January 3 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, the new season picks up the story in a tumultuous era in which women’s lives and expectations are completely transformed.

- TNT has added two new original dramas to its 2016 slate. Good Behavior, starring Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey) and Argentine-Spanish actor Juan Diego Botto (1492: Conquest of Paradise, El Greco) in an adaptation of the Letty Dobesh novels by Wayward Pines author Blake Crouch. Also getting the greenlight is Animal Kingdom, starring Emmy® and Tony® winner Ellen Barkin (Sea of Love, This Boy's Life, Oceans 13) as the matriarch of a Southern California family whose excessive lifestyle is fueled by their criminal activities, with Scott Speedman (The Strangers, The Vow) as her second in command. Shawn Hatosy (Southland, Reckless), Ben Robson (Vikings, Dracula: The Dark Prince), Jake Weary (Pretty Little Liars, It Follows), Finn Cole (Peaky Blinders, An Inspector Calls), Daniella Alonso (Revolution) and Molly Gordon (Love the Coopers, Ithaca) also star.

- This week it was announced Hulu Original East Los High has been picked up for a fourth season.

- TNT has renewed the hit fantasy-adventure The Librarians and the gripping crime dramas Major Crimes and Murder in the First. The Librarians is in the midst of its second season, airing Sundays at 8:00, with the season finale set for Dec. 27. Major Crimes is currently airing Monday nights at 9:00 through Dec. 21 and will return with more episodes to round out its fourth season in February 2016. Murder in the First completed it second dynamic season this past summer. TNT has ordered 10 episodes for the third season of The Librarians, which is set to air in fall 2016; 13 episodes for the fifth season of Major Crimes, scheduled to begin in summer 2016; and 10 episodes for the third season of Murder in the First, also slated for summer.