Around the Tubes: February 1, 2019

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 Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men, Sgrill Foo Fighters, 2019 NBA All-Star Game, and a slew of Showtime TCA announcements.

- Showtime has released the official trailer for Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men, the four-part limited docuseries from filmmaker Sacha Jenkins (BURN MOTHERF*CKER, BURN!).The full series will air on Showtime later this spring. Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men is a Mass Appeal production in association with Endeavor Content. Peter J. Scalettar, Peter Bittenbender and Chris Gary serve as executive producers.



- Hulu released the teaser for Shrill. The six-episode season will launch on Friday, March 15th. Teaser Link: https://youtu.be/PVA7lfEGKkQ

- Foo Fighters will headline this year’s DIRECTV Super Saturday Night--one of the most sought-after invitations during the Big Game weekend--on Saturday, February 2, 2019 at a new high-end entertainment complex at Atlantic Station in Atlanta, GA. The sold-out event will also feature a special guest performance by hip-hop duo Run the Jewels, plus interactive fan experiences and more. Watch and share the trailer for “Live Super Saturday Night: Foo Fighters” (HERE).

- The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced that 2019 GRAMMY®Award-nominated artist and North Carolina native J. Cole will take the court in his home state to headline the 2019 NBA All-Star Game halftime show on Sunday, Feb. 17 at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C. Before the game, Meek Mill will take the stage for an exciting opening and entertaining introduction of the All-Star teams, followed by GRAMMY® Award winner and Charlotte-born Anthony Hamilton performing the U.S. national anthem. Multi-platinum GRAMMY® Award-nominated singer/songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen will perform the Canadian national anthem. The 68th NBA All-Star Game begins at 8 p.m. ET on TNT and will be seen by fans in more than 200 countries and territories in more than 40 languages.

- SHOWTIME has announced that Paco Cabezas (PENNY DREADFUL, The Alienist) is set to direct multiple episodes of PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS, the next chapter of the PENNY DREADFUL saga. Oscar® nominee John Logan, creator, writer and executive producer of the Emmy nominated series PENNY DREADFUL, will continue in those same roles. Production on the drama series is expected to begin later this year.

- SHOWTIME will premiere the feature documentary XY CHELSEA on Friday, June 7 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Directed by Tim Travers Hawkins, and produced by Pulse Films, XY CHELSEA tells the historic story of whistle-blower Chelsea Manning, whose 35-year sentence in a maximum security prison was commuted by President Obama in 2017. Shot over two years and featuring exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes verité with Manning, the film begins on the momentous day in May of that year when she leaves prison and follows her through her journey of discovery, while also examining her place in the conversation on national security and the fight of the transgender community for rights and visibility.

- The highly anticipated second season of the hit SHOWTIME drama THE CHI will premiere on Sunday, April 7 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Created and executive produced by Emmy winner Lena Waithe (Master of None) and executive produced by Academy Award®, Emmy and Golden Globe® winner Common (Selma), THE CHI is a timely coming-of-age story centering on a group of residents who become linked by coincidence but bonded by the need for connection and redemption. The ensemble cast includes Jason Mitchell (Mudbound, Straight Outta Compton), Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (Queen of Katwe), Jacob Latimore (Sleight), Alex Hibbert (Moonlight) Yolonda Ross (Treme), Tiffany Boone (The Following), Armando Riesco (Bull), Barton Fitzpatrick, Shamon Brown Jr., and Michael V. Epps. THE CHI averaged 4.5 million weekly viewers across platforms and ranks as the highest-rated SHOWTIME freshman series since BILLIONS in 2016.


- SHOWTIME will premiere its new one-hour drama series CITY ON A HILL starring Golden Globe winner and Emmy® nominee Kevin Bacon (The Following) and Screen Actors Guild® award winner Aldis Hodge (Underground) on Sunday, June 16 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Production on the 10-episode series will begin in February in New York and Boston.


- Celebrating the 15th anniversary of the original’s premiere, SHOWTIME has announced an eight-episode order for a sequel to its groundbreaking hit series THE L WORD, scheduled to premiere by the end of 2019. Marja-Lewis Ryan (The Four-Faced Liar, 6 Balloons) serves as showrunner and is executive producing with series creator Ilene Chaiken and original series stars Jennifer Beals, Katherine Moennig and Leisha Hailey.

- Oscar nominee and Emmy, Golden Globe®, Screen Actors Guild® and Tony® Award winner Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) has signed on to star and executive produce the new SHOWTIME limited series YOUR HONOR. The series is a legal thriller that rips through all strata of New Orleans society. Cranston will star as a respected judge whose son is involved in a hit-and-run that leads to a high-stakes game of lies, deceit and impossible choices. The 10-episode limited series will be executive produced by Emmy nominees Robert and Michelle King (The Good Fight, The Good Wife). Peter Moffat – whose Criminal Justice served as the basis for The Night Of – serves as showrunner, executive producer and will write multiple episodes, including the first episode. YOUR HONOR will go into production later this year in New Orleans.

- On the heels of the recent premiere of the second half of season nine of its hit comedy series SHAMELESS, SHOWTIME has announced its most-watched show has been renewed for a 10th season. The renewal will make SHAMELESS the longest running series ever on SHOWTIME. Season 10 will mark the return of television’s favorite dysfunctional family The Gallaghers that will include series stars Oscar® nominee and Emmy® and SAG Award winner William H. Macy, Jeremy Allen White, Ethan Cutkosky, Emma Kenney, Christian Isaiah and Cameron Monaghan. Production on season 10 will begin in 2019.

Previewing Into the Dark: Down

Not only have each episode of Into the Dark feature a different holiday of the year, each have their own take on the genre. There have been psychological, farcical, each different in their own way. For the Valentine’s Day episode Down, it is what the press release call Blumhouse’s version of a rom-com. A rom-com horror, I believe that is how you can describe seventy-two percent of every Lifetime movie.

I actually wished they played more into the rom-com aspect earlier in the movie to lull you into a false sense of security as the start is still very cold taking place in a very non-descript elevator. It is late on the start of the three day weekend where Valentine’s Day just happens to coincide with the President’s Day weekend and the final two people in the building are leaving. (To save you from some Googling, no, Valentine’s Day does not fall on the weekend this year. The 13th does not even fall on a Friday like the monitor say. The last time this happened was 2015 and will not happen again until 2026. So pretty much it seems like the writers really wanted this to take place on Friday the 13th, you know, because it is a horror movie.)

Natalie Martinez (Under the Dome) and Matt Lauria (Friday Night Lights) play the unlucky duo that at first make the best of a bad situation. The meet-cute happens when the elevator shuts down four stories underground and all they have to eat and drink are a bottle of wine and a handful of Hersey’s Kisses. These two are so perfect for each other; they both even keep a mini-corkscrew around just in case. But of course, since this is Into the Dark, things go horribly wrong before they are able to get out of the elevator. Now I am not saying it is the best episode so far (see the power ranking below), but it is the best twist so far.

Into the Dark Power Ranking
1. The Body (October)
2. Down (February)
3. New Year, New You (January)
4. Pooka! (December)
5. Flesh and Bone (November)

Into the Dark: Down premieres tomorrow only on Hulu.

Previewing I Am the Night

The Black Dahlia Murder is one of those famous stories that I really do not know that much about because I have never been that much of a fan of the true crime genre. I think I maybe have seen a movie about it, maybe starring Josh Harnett. Maybe not. You will hear a lot about The Black Dahlia when reading about I Am the Night, but really that crime is just tertiary to the plot of the new TNT limited series. the show is more of a character study than trying to figure out who committed the crime.

The show, based on the book One Day She'll Darken, is the story of Fauna Hodel, who on her sixteenth year, learns her mother that raised her is not actually her birth mother. She grew up thinking that her black mother had sex with a white man, but finds her birth certificate and her mother is listed as Caucasian and her father is listed as an unidentified negro. So it is off to Los Angeles to find her birth mother, find out who her father is, and the rest of her family including her grandfather George.

Oh, and George is believed to be a copycat killer of The Black Dahlia murderer, or possibly the actual killer himself by a reporter played by Chris Pine (teaming back up with his Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins who directed multiple episodes and serves as the executive producer). At the time Fauna is learning about her real self, Pine is a disgraced reporter who was successfully sued for definition by George Hodel and has resigned to awkwardly walking on the sand just to take private pictures of celebrates. As his editor tells him, hold stories you can’t tell.

It takes a while for the two leads to cross paths and the first couple episodes suffer for it. That is the problem with how television is made, Pine’s reporter should not even show up in the first episode because this is Fauna’s story, but since he is the recognizable episode who face has to be on the poster to sell the show, he has to be in as many scenes, and possibly more, just to get the show made.

But once the two cross path, the show really hits its stride in the final three episodes. Well until it just ends and you realize that this was not out to solve the case of The Black Dahlia, it was tell the story of Fauna Hodel. And to hammer that point home, at the end of the series, there is the usual where are they now epilogue and the only person we get an update on is Fauna. This will lead people who are not totally emerged in the Black Dahlia case straight to Bing to see what became of George Hodel and the case

I Am the Night airs Mondays at 9:00 on TNT.
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57 Channels and Only This Is On: January 27, 2019

Supergirl: Why is Kara acting as if Alex is not going to remember her at all? She is not losing the information that Kara is Supergirl. Presumably Alex will still remember Kara and still remember Supergirl, just not that they are the same person. Although, just how long until Alex realizes Kara is Supergirl? I cannot imagine it will take her own sister too long to figure out her secret identity.
Supergirl on iTunes.

Shameless: So no one took over Fiona’s room while she was livening in her apartment building? With that house over crowded, you would think someone would move in especially when I believe the three boys were still sharing a room. And I am starting to think that Fiona exits the show maybe going to rehab. Or could they possibly kill her off? It would be weird if she OD’s and yet Frank is still somehow managing to cling to life.

The Passage: Well, I was not expecting Zach Morris to get caught this quickly. Though where do they go from here? The shady organization had a shoot to kill order on him. They cannot let him go. Are they just going to try the cure on him too?
You can download The Passage on iTunes.

Manifest: So last week the pilot presumably found another cloud to make him go into the future again and now this week we find another dude who lost a year in the woods of New York? This show is getting dumber by the episode.
You can download Manifest on iTunes.

Vikings: What a horrible troll to have Floki taunted by the Christian Cross in what he though was the Viking hell. So now he is caved in and covered in ruble. Is this it for Floki? I guess he could just go out the way he came but that is if his torch did not go out. It is about time to close out this plotline, no need to spread it over the final season.
You can download Vikings on iTunes.

Deadly Class: Would it be racist to ask if the hot Asian chick and the Asian head master dude were related? They had that moment at the end where she spilled all the secrets of the new guy. But he did poison her for that test so maybe not.
You can download Deadly Class on iTunes.

The Good Place: Well I was sort of right in that The Bad Place would pick people who would torture the Soul Squad. Got Simone completely right. But odd that of all the time they have spent on how Tahani has lived in her sister’s shadow that instead of Kamila, they bring in a blogger to torture Tahani. And that guy got really annoying real quick. I guess they still bring her because you can say Simone can torture both Chidi and Eleanor. I just hope Donkey Doug is one of the final two..
The Good Place on iTunes.

Gotham: I made an offhand comment that maybe it was The Riddler that blew up the building but I never actually thought it would be him because mass destruction was never his M.O. Or he would at least let someone solve a puzzle first to allow Batman to stop mass destruction.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.