Around the Tubes: June 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 Shangri-La, POV, Janet Jackson, The Avett Brothers, James Bay, Maggie Lindemann, Phantogram, Keb’ Mo, KIANA LEDÈ, Tom Morello, Normal People, Work in Progress, and AccuWeather.

- Showtime Documentary Films today revealed the official poster and trailer for Shangri-La and announced the four-part docu-series, a collaboration from Academy Award® and Emmy® winner Morgan Neville (Won’t You Be My Neighbor, 20 Feet From Stardom), legendary music producer Rick Rubin, and director Jeff Malmberg (Marwencol) will premiere on Friday, July 12 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. While new episodes of Shangri-La will be released on Showtime linear channels weekly, all four will be available immediately on July 12 for on-demand streaming, via the SHOWTIME and SHOWTIME ANYTIME apps and partnering on-demand platforms. With Rubin’s iconic studio in Malibu as the backdrop, Shangri-La is a four-part docu-series that focuses on creative conversation and the emotional side of music-making. Neville directed the first two episodes of the series, and the final two are directed by Malmberg.


- At a pre-season party in small-town Steubenville, Ohio, a heinous crime took place: the assault of a teenage girl by members of the beloved high school football team. As it painstakingly reconstructs the night of the crime and its aftermath, Roll Red Roll uncovers the ingrained rape culture at the heart of the incident, acting as a cautionary tale about what can happen when teenage social media bullying runs rampant and adults look the other way. Directed by Nancy Schwartzman, winner of seven documentary feature awards, and nominated for the Cinema Eye Honors Spotlight Award, Roll Red Roll has its national broadcast and streaming debut on the PBS documentary series POV and pov.org on Monday, June 17 at 10 p.m. (check local listings). POV is American television’s longest-running independent documentary series, debuting its 32nd season with Schwartzman’s investigative film.

- A&M/UMe is set to release Janet Jackson's iconic mega platinum-selling third album Control on single vinyl in two different color options: black and translucent red. This will be the first time Control has been reissued on vinyl since the album's initial release on February 4, 1986. Pre-order Janet Jackson's Control here. Over the course of its relentlessly catchy and undeniably dance-able 42 minutes, Control instantly established Jackson, along with her co-writers/producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, as perennial pop and R&B innovators. (The three of them continued to experiment and break new ground together on a number of subsequent best-selling releases, including 1989's Rhythm Nation 1814 and 1993's janet.) Control is internationally recognized as a singular fusion of musical styles including rhythm and blues, funk, pop, soul, disco, and modern synthesized percussion. Control also solidified the fact that Janet Jackson had truly arrived as a liberated and noteworthy artist, one who ultimately emerged as a global superstar and a model for independent women the world over.

- The Avett Brothers, Cloud 9 Adventures, and The Bowery Presents have announced full details for the third edition of their tropical music vacation. After taking a year off, The Avett Brothers At The Beach returns in 2020 with a new destination, the stunning Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.

- James Bay performed a cover of Oasis’ “Don’t Look Back In Anger” in front of Noel Gallagher on BBC’s Radio 2 Breakfast Show with Fearne Cotton. Watch HERE. Alongside the cover, BAY performed “Let It Go”, and recent single “Bad” on the morning show.

- Maggie Lindemann has consistently challenged her self-identity and evolved as an artist throughout a career that’s already seen her pass the billion streams landmark. Her breakthrough smash ‘Pretty Girl’ established her as a breaking pop icon before she took a reflective, goth-tinged approach with ‘Would I’ and ‘Human’. Her latest cut ‘Friends Go’ continues her exploration of mental health issues, but the music has shifted again with a modernist update of Gwen Stefani-style attitude and summery island rhythms. Now Maggie uses ‘Friends Go’ as the soundtrack to the short film ‘Death By Third Wheel’, which was directed by Van Alpert (Post Malone, Local Natives).

- Phantogram are officially back! Today, the duo returns with their new single “Into Happiness”—listen and share HERE. Announcing their return, Phantogram wrote a special letter to fans, noting about the song that it “embodies the personal journey that both of us have taken since we released Three; it’s been a long path, coming out of the darkness and into the light.”

- AllMusic gives a sneak peek into Keb’ Mo’s upcoming release, Oklahoma, with the premiere of “This Is My Home,” a thought-provoking track from the new album. The song is coupled with a storytelling lyric video also shared via AllMusic. Starting today, the track will be offered as a free download when pre-ordering the album. Oklahoma is set for a June 14 release on Concord Records and is now available for pre-order here: https://found.ee/KebMo_OK.

- As buzz reaches a boiling point, R&B starlet KIANA LEDÈ shares a new single and music video entitled “Can I” this week. Watch it HERE.

- As the co-founder of Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave and Prophets Of Rage, and as a collaborator with rock legends from Bruce Springsteen to Johnny Cash, few musicians have been as groundbreaking as American guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor and political activist, Tom Morello. Genesis is honored to announce Whatever It Takes, the official signed limited edition book exploring Morello's entire career from his first bands through to his most recent solo album. Additional details including publication date coming soon. Check the website for updates.

- Hulu announces straight to series order on Normal People, a 12-episode, half-hour drama, adapted from Sally Rooney’s NY Times best-selling novel from Element Pictures, in association with BBC Three. Normal People tracks the tender but complicated relationship of Marianne and Connell from the end of their school days in small-town west of Ireland to their undergraduate years at Trinity College. At school, he’s well-liked and popular, while she’s lonely, proud and intimidating. But when Connell comes to pick up his mother from her cleaning job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers – one they are determined to conceal. A year later, they’re both studying in Dublin and Marianne has found her feet in a new social world but Connell hangs at the side lines, shy and uncertain.

- Showtime has ordered an eight-episode season of the new half-hour comedy series Work in Progress, created by Abby McEnany and Tim Mason. McEnany stars in the series, expected to premiere later this year. Mason directed the pilot. Lilly Wachowski (The Matrix, Sense8) will co-write the first season and executive produce with McEnany and Mason. SHOWTIME acquired the project after its premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it was an official selection of the Indie Episodic program.

- AccuWeather, the world’s largest and fastest-growing weather and digital media company, will commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day with a compelling content series about how weather forecasts influenced the outcome of the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II. Known worldwide for forecasts and warnings with proven Superior Accuracy™, AccuWeather will spotlight the contributions meteorologists made to this historic event on June 6, 1944. The content will be featured on the AccuWeather Network and found on the popular AccuWeather.com website.

Previewing American Princess: A Dude's Review of Lifetime vol. X

Lifetime liked their last original program You so much, they renewed it before it even aired. Except when the season ended, Lifetime changed course, said the show would be giving the show to Netflix and would now be focusing on just making their crappy Lifetime movies. I kind of wonder how the cast and crew of American Princess, the only other show the channel had in production at the time, reacted to this. They did not have a premiere date then and their channel just said they were getting out of the television show business. But the show is actually airing on Lifetime, but they better hope someone at Netflix, or some other outlet, likes the show because it is very doubtfully there will be a second season on Lifetime.

You would expect a show called American Princess airing on Lifetime to be some cheap Megan Markle knockoff (there already is a Lifetime Movie that aired a week or two ago) but it surprisingly has nothing to do with any actual (or fictionalized) monarchy. The show begins with Amanda, a New York socialite on the day of her dream wedding catching her hypothetical Prince Charming with, um, how do I want to put this… his manhood in the mouth of another woman.

This prompts Amanda to go full runaway bride until she finds herself at a Renaissance festival where the English major schools the festival’s Queen in period accurate Shakespeare (needless to say the queen is none too happy with her and become the main antagonist of the show). Then after waking up the next morning hungover from copious amount of mead, Amanda decides to stay when her family finds her and tries to get her to look past her fiancé’s dalliances. What a forking stupid idea for a show… I love it.

Ironically enough, the titular American Princess is played by new to Hollywood Aussie Georgia Flood who reminds me of a shorter Krysten Ritter. She can come off as a little mean at times, but highly likable the more you see her. The rest of the workers are the rag tag band of weirdos you expect. Amanda’s roommate came for one day five years ago and never left. There is a guy called who says nothing but “stick” (naturally he is the guy in the picture above with the stick).  And the potential love interest works in a mud pit. Really, a good dumb show to watch when there is not much else on during the summer.

American Princess airs Sundays at 9:00 on Lifetime. This Sunday features back to back episodes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: May 26, 2019

Supergirl: Last week I wondered why Red Daughter was killed off screen, but we got flashbacks of it this week, oh and she did not actually die. I guess they could not afford Jon Cryer to appear in more episodes so they had to do big Lex episodes with copious amounts of flashbacks. Speaking of not really dying, I take it The Monitor is going to do something to Lex to bring him back. I do hope we get Evil Lena next season, the buddy-buddy with Kara has become a bit tedious and we need a little more drama. I wonder if she will just be a little upset or go full Lex.
Supergirl on iTunes.

Killing Eve: Yeah, still confused. So last week, the French assassin smacks the mark with a book, stalks some chicks at night, and this week she is still meeting with the mark even though she smacked him pretty hard last week? Why would he want to be in the same room as her?
You can download Killing Eve on iTunes.

Good Girls: Wait, Boomer has been alive this whole time and the other chick gave the Good Girls her dead husband’s husband so should could continue to cash his military checks and Boomer has been living in the attic of his grandmother? What? That is some daytime soap plotline right there. But if he was there, why didn’t he continue to pay his grandmother’s bill like he used to? And I am confused to what was going on with Ruby’s lawyers. It seemed implied to me that the lawyer knew she was playing with dirty money, I assumed that is why he asked for more when Ruby paid with cash, so it would cover the extra expense of having to wash it.
You can download Good Girls on iTunes

The Enemy Within: I actually thought for a moment they were actually going to bring Tal into the task force and just keep adding traitors as they climb higher and height up the ladder who the head of the organization was. But I did not quite understand why Erika did not mention there was someone higher up in the government. Wouldn’t that guarantee she stays in Washington so she could help find Tal’s accomplice? The only reason I can think of for not telling is maybe she thinks she can get a full pardon if she brings down this person herself?
You can download The Enemy Within on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists: Obviously the British dude was a red herring, but what a horrible end. Someone called The Professor admits to killing the dude and (s)he may be an actual professor because that is what the waiter called him. They really are going to stretch out this mystery like the orginal version of the show. And unless it turns out to be Cece again, it will likely be as dumb.
You can download Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists on iTunes.

The Challenge: War of World: Well I predicted a Nany/Turbo win at the beginning of the season so I will go ahead and take credit for that. But what great humor for Cara Maria to get the mile head start only for her to have to sit there for someone else to show up, then lose to everyone but the last person.
You can download The Challenge: War of Worlds on iTunes.

Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger: Ooo, Dagger vs. Mayhem battle royal. So big bag did take Dagger’s mom. But how? And why? And where are they now?
You can download Marvel's Cloak and Dagger on iTunes.

Doom Patrol: Okay, so when Beard Hunter randomly showed up on Danny Street was not as random as I thought. When he ate Niles “essence” it led him to Danny Street where Niles’s daughter was. Alrighty. But after a stellar first season, the ending was kind of meh. Well aside from the Tubthumping karaoke.

Blindspot: Well that was a long layoff, when the little girl showed up, I thought, wait, when did Kurt and Jane have a kid? Did I forget a time jump? But then I realized, oh yeah, Kurt knocked up that US Marshall.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: With an episode entitled, “Fear and Loathing on the Planet of Kitson” you would have to think things might get a little weird, but I never thought Quake and Simmons would start tripping balls. Well that was entertaining.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.