Around the Tubes: 12/11/15

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 Path, Conan, Showtime Boxing, Homeland, The Affair, and Telemondo.


- We’re excited to announce the Hulu Original The Path will premiere on March 30, 2016. The Path follows a family at the center of a controversial cult as they struggle with relationships, faith and power. Each episode takes an in-depth look at the gravitational pull of belief and what it means to choose between the life we live and the life we want. The series comes to Hulu from Universal Television and Jason Katims’ True Jack Productions and was created by Jessica Goldberg who will write and executive-produce the series, along with Katims and Michelle Lee of True Jack Productions. The 10-episode series stars Aaron Paul, Michelle Monaghan, Hugh Dancy, and Rockmond Dunbar.

The Path on Hulu — Join the movement on March 30, 2016

Follow us. The Path premieres March 30, 2016, only on Hulu.

Posted by The Path on Tuesday, December 8, 2015

- The Force will be with TBS this month when the late-night series Conan welcomes the cast of the highly anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Stars Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Lupita Nyong’o and Gwendoline Christie, along with director J.J. Abrams will all join host Conan O'Brien on Thursday, Dec. 17, at 11 p.m. (ET/PT) for what's certain to be a blockbuster show.

- For the first time ever, a boxing match has been released in its entirety in 360 degree immersive virtual reality, as Showtime captured the shocking first round TKO from Saturday night’s main event between WBA Middleweight World Champion Daniel Jacobs’ and previously undefeated challenger Peter Quillin. The all-Brooklyn main event has been made available in 360 video from ring-side, giving fans an unprecedented boxing experience. The virtual reality video engrosses viewers in the matchup of the top middleweights, facing off in the prime of their career, where Brooklyn’s Jacobs (31-1, 28 KOs) won the “Battle For Brooklyn.” The 360 footage is viewable on the Showtime Sports’ YouTube channel*, the Showtime Boxing Facebook page, on the Samsung Gear VR via the MILK VR app and Littlestar VR apps for Samsung Gear VR, iOS and Android.

- In advance of the final two episodes of the current seasons of its hit fall drama series, Showtime has picked up a sixth season of Homeland and ordered a third season of The Affair. Showtime currently has the top two rated scripted series on premium television in the fourth quarter, with Homeland and The Affair (ranked based on Live+SD, L+3 and L+7 ratings). Homeland season five stars Emmy®, Screen Actors Guild® and Golden Globe® Award winner Claire Danes, Emmy nominee Rupert Friend and Emmy and Tony® winner Mandy Patinkin. The Affair season two stars Golden Globe nominee Dominic West, Golden Globe winner Ruth Wilson, Emmy Award nominee Maura Tierney and Screen Actors Guild nominee Joshua Jackson. Both series air on Sunday nights starting at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Showtime.

- A new national poll released this week by Telemundo, MSNBC and the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion finds that in a hypothetical match-up for the Presidential elections, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 52%, leads businessman Donald Trump, 41%, by double digits and is ahead of Texas Senator Ted Cruz by seven points, 51% for Clinton to 44% for Cruz. However, the race tightens when Clinton is matched against former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. Clinton edges Bush by four points, Rubio by three points, and she is in a virtual tie with Carson. The poll also finds that all of the mentioned Republicans candidates, except Trump, are getting a greater proportion of Latino voters than either Romney or McCain did in their presidential bids against Obama.

The Voice Season Nine Top 9 Power Rankings

Well crap, we finally had a chance to get rid of Braiden and Korin had to go and forget the lyrics (and yet still almost beat him). If I were Korin, I would have spent more time last week practicing my Save Me song than the one on Monday. Well only one more week of Braiden, no way he survives the five person cut next week. I thought it was a pretty meh week yet surprisingly seven of the ten made the top 10 on iTunes. I wonder how many of them will at this time next week will have wished they saved that song for the big cut instead during a week when Korin and Braiden were clearly in the bottom. It seem like Amy was the only one who took it easy this week (and yet still managed to make the top ten). At least I hope that was the case, saving a great song for next week, and Adam has not officially run out of ideas, thinking turning a cheesy teen pop song kiss off into some moody goodbye.

Prediction time, this season seems pretty hard to predict as everyone but Braiden seem pretty close and it will come down to song selection (you are definitely going to get in the top 10 tomorrow to be saved by America after last week) and maybe even performance order. The last three weeks someone who performed in the first hour has entered the top 25 on iTunes before the show has even ended on their way to the top 10. When only one person is going home with obvious fodder at the bottom it does not matter, but when it is close, you are losing about 70,000 votes. Twice it has happened Amy who has yet to perform in the 9:00 hour. Does she finally get to perform late? Does Madi get to perform late again since she is the only Pharrell member left? Does Jordan get to go last again despite being the only lock for the final? I think one of Blake's team is the only other lock to get saved by America. That leaves Amy, Madi, Jeffery, and Blake's other country singer fighting to get the last spot. So I am going to predict that Jordan, Barrett, Emily Ann get saved by America while Amy picks up the Twitter Save after singing Maroon 5's Sunday Morning because everyone will probably be singing a Maroon 5 next week. As for my Power Rankings:

1. Madi Davis (Even)
2. Amy Vachal (Even)
3. Emily Ann Roberts (Even)
4. Jordan Smith (Even)
5. Shelby Brown (up 2)
6. Barrett Baber (up 3)
7. Jeffery Austin (down 1)
8. Zach Seabaugh (up 1)

64. Braiden Sunshine (still dead last)

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 12/6/15

Once Upon a Time: So Emma stole everyone's memory because she stole Captain Hook's memory and wanted everyone to forget she turned him into a Dark One and stole his because his big master-plan was to resurrect all the Dark Ones. I hate this show. When Captain Hook was going to open the gates to the Underworld I actually was kind of hoping the show was going to exploited Hercules next and go hang out with Hades.
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Homeland: What a great episode. The whole trying to entrap Allison was just gripping. First time fails as she just has sex with a dude instead of panicking. And then there is a great spy vs. spy stuff when she actually does run. But I was a bit disappointed in the ending when Allison whispers in the Russian's ear and I am thinking it is some great plan only for her to say he was her asset this whole time which I really do not think anyone should buy. She has a high ranking Russian mole that she has never told anyone about before? I really hope that Dar (or the writers think Dar) is that stupid. She is going to need more than that to get out of this.As for the other half of the episode, I am beginning to tire of the Quinn story line.

The Walking Dead: Oh Carl, kill that kid... and his brother. Then I do not sure who is more stupid fighting to the death over the captured Wolf: Carol or Morgan. Know you both are knocked out and he is set free. The show usually does premieres and finales the best but this may have been the worst of any of them since the farm season. Hopefully Negan is as great as message board commentator say. The Governor certainly was not.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

The Affair: This is the third time this season I spent the episode we would get to spend an entire act with the daughter. The first time was when she showed up drunk to the guest house, then when she showed up drunk to the Lockhart's Thanksgiving, and now with she drunkenly making out with another chick in a hot tub while her naked father watched inches away. Since the switched up the format this week, can we please get an episode dedicated to what she has been up to this season? Oooh, maybe that is the season finale: we follow drunk daughter through this season and ends with her drunk driving into Scotty.

Into the Badlands: The plot is still thin and silly but, hey, it is still visually cool. And that has to be the first wheelchair fight ever on television. Well, unless you count the cripple fight on South Park.
You can download Into the Badlands on iTunes.

Gotham: What a bizarrely awesome assortment of people going after Galavan. Thankfully Lucius finally was able to fix the computer two months later to join them to point out how silly it all was. Seriously, a fifteen year old girl took out an armed guard with a kick. Then Tigress's great escape was great, pushing her niece out the window only to just out later only to reveal they both had parachute gliders. But I did call Silver would be the one who saved Bruce (somewhat, she basically just stalled long enough for the ragtag gang to show up). I was a bit surprised that Jim was the one who killed Galavan, I thought he would just walk away and let Penguin do what he wanted. And how did the body end up in the morgue? How about dropping the body in the river to get rid of the evidence. Now Dr. Strange has control of the body for whatever reason along with a not so subtle glimpse at Fish Mooney in one of the tanks. I did not recognize anyone else in the tanks that could hint at who is next, I will have to check the internet nerd who are smarter than me to see if I missed something. Though I definitely recognized Mr. Freeze at the end.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

Supergirl: Yeah, Maxwell Lord is definitely going to hook up with Kara's sister. Kind of a meh episode aside from the Landry Clarke's father sighting. I wonder now that he is free from his creator if Red Tornado will gain free will and start fighting for good or if this was a one off episode for him.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: I was shocked when the episode started with Coulson having a dinner date with Roz after learning last week she was working with Hydra, even if that was inadvertently. But being a show with Joss Whedon on it, having a happy couple means one of them had to die. And of course this drives Coulaon to skydive into a portal to another world. Aside from the shocking death, mostly a filler episode setting up what looks like a big Winter Final (ugg) with a battle on the Inhuman planet. The big question is if they are able to bring back Simmons' astronaut buddy and will the big bad Inhuman comes back too. My prediction: they are the same person!!!!
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Survivor: Second Chances: I know you have to say anything to make it three more days when you think you are on the bottom, but Joe's "We should vote out the person everyone wants to sit next to at Final Tribal" has to be the worst pitch in Survivor history. How about pointing out how the person who dominates the Immunity Challenges never win the game?
You can download Survivor: Second Chance on iTunes.

Nashville: The daughters are really starting to get annoying. I know teenagers are annoying and moody in real life but do television writers realize how painful it is to watch them on television? Teenagers on television have not always been this annoying. I blame the annoying people who are constantly harping on things not being realistic, which I think started when people started pointing out Jack Bower never went to the bathroom once over the course of twenty-four hours or ever got stuck in Los Angeles traffic. These this did not happen because it made for bad television.And as realistic as annoying teenagers are, it is time to ban them from television.

The Wiz Live!: Well that was significantly better than the previous two musicals even if there was a visible camera in the first scene. Which I guess was not too hard because Carrie Underwood cannot act, Allison Williams was horribly miscast and Christopher Walken may have been asleep the whole time. Mary J. Blige pretty much stole the show with maybe the most over the top acting ever put to film. Maybe NBC should do Wicked next and let Mary reprise her role. Granted, if I were the guy in charge, I would still throw all the money I could at Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling for a live production of Guys and Dolls, with Kristen Bell and Jason Street in the supporting roles. Of course now we do not have to wait another year for the next musical because next month Fox is putting on Grease Live. Cannot wait. We are truly living the the greatest era for cheesy entertainment since the eighties.