57 Channels and Only This Is On: 7/25/15

Hannibal: There has been some extremely disturbing scenes over the two and half seasons, but delivering a still born Verger baby from a dead pig takes the case even when it was being sliced with a scene with a dude's face being removed.
You can download Hannibal on iTunes.

Aquarius: Finally they gave the chick with the historically bad accent her own episode. And what a tour de force performance. Give her her own show.
You can download Aquarius on iTunes.

The Strain: I did not catch on the two old dudes knew each other until they came face to face in current times (it probably does not help that Dr. Goodweather is the only name I remember besides The Master). But still those blind vampire kids are really going to creep me out all season.
You can download The Strain on iTunes.

Falling Skies: Yep, of course Pope was not happy that Tom would not save his his girlfriends but I did not see him going all saved head vengeful. Though I doubt anything bad will end up happening to Hal.
You can download Falling Skies on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: How disappointing we did not get to see Hannah go amateur doctor and remove everybody's chip. Almost as disappointing that Allison did not coach any youth soccer this week.T least they did not drag out the Charles may or may not be dead and confirmed that he is still alive this week. And only two episodes until we get to see him. Um, yeah. So that will be the fifth A reveal on this show? I just if it will someone we have already met or will it just the actor playing Jason pulling double duties.
You can download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Tyrant: Poor Ahmed, he cut his hair to be taken more seriously only to be passed over for the new general position for the brother he first meets at the announcement ceremony. Maybe it is time to change that ring tone too Ahmed.
You can download Tyrant on iTunes.

Mr. Robot: Wait, so did the drug dealer kidnap Eliot's neighbor while he was still in prison? Does he know Eliot was involved in his incarceration?
You can download Mr. Robot on iTunes

Around the Tubes:7/24/15

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 Bob Marley, The Bomb, The Bastard Executioner, Lollapalooza, Homeland, You're the Worst, The League, Margaret Cho: psyCHO, Wolfmother, Archer, and The Screen Actors Guild Awards.

- Bob Marley’s 70th birthday year-long celebration (2015) continues with the release of two new box sets, The Complete Island Recordings and The Complete Island Recordings: Collector’s Edition. These two stunning vinyl collection sets will release September 25th, 2015, and feature 11 albums on 180-gram vinyl spanning a decade’s worth of Bob Marley & The Wailers releases on Island Records. The Complete Island Recordings will include 11-LPs packaged in a rigid card box with lift top lid, and wrapped in silver paper that simulates the brushed metal finish of a hinged lighter. The Complete Island Recordings: Collector’s Edition will included 11-LPs, a 70th anniversary slip mat and two photos in glassine envelopes, all packaged in a unique metal box set, numbered and lined with velvet and connected to truly emulate a hinged lighter. Both boxes will include Bob’s 70th Birthday logo and all nine Bob Marley & The Wailers studio albums recorded for Island Records, featuring some of their most celebrated releases, including “Catch A Fire,” their 1973 label debut, and “Rastaman Vibration,” their 1976 breakthrough album in the United States, along with two live albums “Live!” and “Babylon By Bus.”

- As the U.S and Iran reached a historic nuclear weapon deal last week and we are also approaching the 70th anniversary of the first detonation of the atomic bomb, it is a particularly timely moment for the U.S.’ history with nuclear power. To mark the upcoming historic milestone, PBS will premiere The Bomb and Uranium: Twisting the Dragon's Tail. I have included additional information regarding both programs below my signature. The Bomb premieres Tuesday, July 28 from 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) and Uranium: Twisting the Dragon's Tail premieres Tuesday, July 28, and Wednesday, July 29, 2015 from 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET (check local listings). A YouTube playlist with a handful of clips (more to be added over the next week) can be viewed here: http://to.pbs.org/1CEIkQW.

- Pray you don’t cross his path. The Bastard Executioner, the epic new series from creator Kurt Sutter, arrives this fall on FX. #TBX


- Missed out on nabbing tickets to this year’s Lollapalooza before tickets sold out? Well, Fuse has a solution for you: From July 31 through August 2, fans can visit fuse.tv to access Red Bull TV’s Lollapalooza live stream and enjoy the best of the festival from the comfort of their own home. Among the artists set to perform during the three-day festival in Chicago’s Grant Park are Metallica, Florence + the Machine, Sam Smith, Brand New, The Weeknd, Charli XCX, Kid Cudi, Walk The Moon and many more. Also check out www.fuse.tv for exclusive artist interviews, photo galleries and up to the minute Festival coverage.

- Yesterday, Showtime announced that the highly anticipated fifth season of the Emmy® and Golden Globe®-winning hit drama series Homeland will premiere on Sunday, October 4th at 9:00, followed by the second season premiere of the Golden Globe-winning drama The Affair at 10:00.

- FXX is the destination for comedy this fall with the seventh and final season of its hit comedy series The League and the second season of the acclaimed comedy You’re The Worst, it was announced today by Chuck Saftler, President of Program Strategy and COO, FX Networks. Season seven of The League will premiere on FXX on Wednesday, September 9th at 10:00, immediately followed by the second season of You’re The Worst at 10:30.

- Showtime will debut Margaret Cho: psyCHO, the latest show from renowned three-time Grammy and Emmy nominated comedian Margaret Cho on September 25th at 9:00. Filmed in March at the Gramercy Theater in New York City, Cho returns to the stage in front of a live audience in this provocative and hilarious performance.

- Following this record-breaking social media performance, Syfy and The Asylum announced they have greenlit Sharknado 4, expected to make landfall in July 2016. After destroying Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C. and much of the Eastern Seaboard, where will the sharks strike next? And will April Wexler (Tara Reid) live or die? Fans can decide if April makes it to Sharknado 4 by voting #AprilLives OR #AprilDies on Twitter or by visiting Sharknado.Syfy.com.

- Universal Music Enterprises will mark the 10th anniversary of Australian Grammy-winning rockers Wolfmother’s self-titled Modular/Interscope debut album, which first came out in 2005 via Universal Music Australia/Modular, featuring classic songs like the Top 10 U.S. alternative and #7 Mainstream Rock smash, “Woman” (earning Best Hard Rock Performance at the 2007 Grammys) and the Rock radio mainstays “Joker & the Thief” and “White Unicorn,” along with international hits, “Mind’s Eye,” “Dimension” and “Love Train.” Critics cited the band’s raw power, comparing it to the likes of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and classic psychedelic groups like Blue Cheer. Wolfmother: 10th Anniversary will be available both as a deluxe two-CD physical set, digitally and – for the first time in the U.S. – a two-LP vinyl set, on September 25, with the original cover artwork by Frank Frazetta. The double-album set, issued on audiophile 180g heavyweight vinyl, features four bonus B-sides, including “The Earth’s Rotation Around The Sun,” an acoustic version of “Vagabond,” a Loving Hands remix of “Joker & the Thief” and a Mstrkrft remix of “Woman.” The double-CD will also be available in digital audio, while the two-LP set will come with a download card.

- FXX will host a Season 1 marathon of the hit animated comedy Archer on Saturday, August 15th from 9 PM – 2 AM. With Archer set to return for its seventh season next year, join Sterling Archer and his fellow agents for an uninterrupted look back at the season that started it all.

- Carol Burnett – comedic trailblazer, actor, singer, dancer, producer and author – has been named the 52nd recipient of SAG-AFTRA's highest tribute: the SAG Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. Burnett will be presented the performers union's top accolade at the 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, which will be simulcast live on TNT and TBS on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016 at 8 p.m. (ET), 7 p.m. (CT), 6 p.m. (MT) and 5 p.m. (PT). Given annually to an actor who fosters the "finest ideals of the acting profession," the SAG Life Achievement Award will join Burnett's exception al catal og of preeminent industry and public honors, which includes multiple Emmys®, a special Tony®, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and both a Kennedy Center Honor and its Mark Twain Prize for Humor.

I Want My Music Television:7/23/15

Song For Someone - U2


The prison industrial complex looks to be one of the bigger issues in the upcoming presidential election and one that it seems like both Democrats and Republicans should agree on. It a rights issues for the dems and the GOP should not like our tax dollars being wasted on nonviolent prisoners. President Obama just recently became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison. But like most of what goes on in Washington, I would be shocked if anything actually gets done other than a few more states decriminalizing the wacky weed. I am not sure sure if the new U2 video is part of that movement as we seem Woody Harrelson's final day in prison which gets kind of creepy after being picked up by his real life daughter. It is probably good that the video cut off where it did.

Good for You - Selena Gomez


Someone recently pointed out that the new Selena Gomez music music video was made for dirty old men. I think pretty much any red blooded American man can appreciate it, c'mon, it is not Fiona Apple Criminal type creepy or anything. Okay, close, but there is no seventies shag carpeting. (Sure I may just be talking myself into not being creepy for watching this somewhere between 100 and 1000 times.) The song itself is kind of boring. It sound like she went into a producer and said, "I want Lorde but sexier." Except I do not want a sexier version of Lorde. But at least the music video omits the unnecessary A$AP Rocky verse for multiple reasons.

The Wolf (Live At Bonnaroo 2015) - Mumford & Sons


Mumford and Sons dropped their new album without a music video saying they do not really like doing them but had come around and may end up filming a couple. Um, I am not sure transversing around Bonnaroo as Robin Hood, Maid Marianne(?), a chicken, and a wolf (natch) makes may not actually be better than no video at all. Like most people when the new album came out, I met it with a "huh?" and "why?" but after a couple listens I do not completely have The Wolf but still find their electric conversion unnecessary.

Goldmine - Kimbra


Is the Kimbra music video stop motion (live action stop motion is a weird concept)? At any rate it is freaky cool.

Previewing Twinning

VH1 got into the competition business with I Love Money which ended up being a trashier version of The Challenge (no, seriously; casting agents found people worse off then those that go on The Challenge; think about that for a minute). Tragically, one of the contestants in the third season participated in a murder-suicide prior to the airing. VH1 never aired that season and burned off the fourth season during late night programming over a year later and no more seasons were filmed (same for any ... of Love feeder shows). In the last five years, crappy Housewives type shows have taken their place making VH1 must flee TV in the interim.

Even though those horrible housewives type show still inexplicably do well, it does seem like Video Hits One is trying to change its brand a little bit lately. First off Hindsight, a time traveling nineties show, was shockingly entertaining. There is also their faux-reality block of Barely Famous and Candidly Nicole (the former which is almost watchable) and even The Walk of Shame Shuttle and Dating Naked are cheesy fun at times.

The cable channel is even getting back into the competition game with another The Challenge type show. Thankfully the cast is not culled from all the horrible housewives shows that populated the the channel. Instead, as you can probably guess by the title, Twinning is made up by identical twins to see who has the best twin intuition, or as they calling it twintuition (there are an annoying amount of twin puns in the show).

But the show gets real evil real quick as they force the twins to live in separate Big Brother type houses (naturally they are mirror images of each other, one green, one orange colored; though it may have been cooler had it had been like that Syfy show where one half had to live live primitives, the other in the space age). The twins are even separated in challenges that they are supposed to complete together. The first of which is trying to match the same matching game with a giant wall between them. Okay the challenge kind of sucks and it is pretty clear that the limited amount of challenges where teammates cannot see each other may be too limiting.

Okay, the are not permanently separated because the top four winners get to spend one day with the ability to go between houses where they can hang out with their twins, at the end of which those eight get to pick which two teams go into the elimination round. Again, this is kind of lame because at least the first one is just the twins trying to guess questions like "what is the perfect time to wake up" and what number would you definitely pick if playing the lottery?"

As mentioned earlier, Dating Naked can be cheesy fun, and to give you an idea about Twinning, they come from the same Lighthearted Entertainment production company. The grand prize for the twinners is the kind of laughable $222,222.00. After the first episode, there really anyone I have any interest in rooting for why there are a couple of twins I already hope get the boot soon. Twinning is kind of a low rent The Challenge but since that is not on, Twinning may just hold you over until Survivor starts again in the fall.

Twinning airs Wednesdays at 100 on VH1.