Around the Tubes:July 20, 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 Veronica Mars, On Becoming a God in Central Florida, Hitsville: The Making of Motown, Kate Tempest, Kassi Ashton, untitled Alicia Keys project, Schitt's Creek, WikiLeaks, and CTRL ALT DELETE.

- As announced yesterday by Kristen Bell during the series’ panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Hulu has made all 8 episodes of the new Veronica Mars season available to stream now, only on Hulu.


- Showtime has released the official poster and trailer for its new dark comedy series On Becoming a God in Central Florida, premiering on Sunday, August 25 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Starring Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Kirsten Dunst (Fargo), the 10-episode series is a story about the cult of free enterprise and one woman’s relentless pursuit of the American Dream.


- Showtime Documentary Films today announced it will premiere the new documentary Hitsville: The Making of Motown from directors Benjamin and Gabe Turner (Class of 92, I Am Bolt, One Direction: This Is Us) on Saturday, August 24 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The remarkable story of the legendary Motown Records is told through new and exclusive interviews with the label’s visionary founder, Berry Gordy, and many of its superstar artists and creative figures, as well as rare performances and behind-the-scenes footage unearthed from Motown’s vaults and Gordy’s personal archives. Hitsville: The Making of Motown is the first documentary about the iconic label with Gordy’s participation.


- British spoken word artist, rapper, poet, novelist and playwright Kate Tempest debuted a fiery and passionate performance of her track “Firesmoke” from her new album The Book Of Traps & Lessons on Late Night with Seth Meyers last night—watch it HERE!

- Kassi Ashton, one of the most compelling rising stars in Nashville, has today unveiled the new music video for her song "Field Party". The upbeat, anthemic song calls for nothing short of a fun and energetic party, and that's exactly what the video delivers. The clip features Kassi with her friends in a field outside of an old factory in Nashville, TN, celebrating, drinking and dancing the night away. Refinery29 premiered the video recently, lauding it a "vibrant, playful music video." Read Kassi's interview with Refinery29 HERE and watch the video HERE.

- Showtime has made a series commitment to an untitled musical drama series executive produced by multiple Grammy winner Alicia Keys and the Oscar, Tony and Grammy winning team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land, Dear Evan Hansen, The Greatest Showman). Pasek and Paul will contribute music to the series. Kyle Jarrow (The SpongeBob Musical) will write and executive produce. Tony winner and Oscar nominated producer Marc Platt (Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, The Band’s Visit, La La Land), Emmy winner R.J. Cutler (Nashville, American High), and Emmy winner Adam Siegel (Grease: Live!) will executive produce. The announcement was made today by Gary Levine, President of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Inc.

- In a historic morning for Pop TV, the network’s acclaimed comedy series Schitt's Creek received four nominations for the 71st Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Eugene Levy, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Catherine O’Hara, and Outstanding Contemporary Costumes. The nominations mark the first in the history of Pop TV which is now fully owned by CBS Corporation.

-New documents obtained exclusively by CNN reveal that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange received in-person deliveries, potentially of hacked materials related to the 2016 US election, during a series of suspicious meetings at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Link to Story: Exclusive: Security reports reveal how Assange turned an embassy into a command post for election meddling

- Ed Begley Jr. has received an Emmy Nomination for his role of Dr. Rosenblatt in CTRL ALT DELETE in the category of Outstanding Actor in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series. Said Ed Begley Jr.: "It was a pleasure and an honor to work with Roni and Margaret on this show. What ultimately drew me to the project was the material - great characters, funny jokes, and very serious consequences about a very serious issue. We are at a turning point with regards to reproductive rights in this country. We can go one way or the other - one would be the Handmaids Tale path, which I hope we don’t choose. So we must stand up and we must fight for justice and a woman’s right to choose."

The Fifteenth Annual Scooter Television Awards

Welcome to the 15th Annual Scooter Television Awards honoring show that aired a majority of their season between July 2018 and June 2019. Without further ado, here are the winners of the 2018 STA's:

Best Scripted Show: Doom Patrol

Best Comedy: The Good Place

Best Sci-Fi Show: Future Man

Best Comic Book Adaptation: Doom Patrol

Best Period Show: G.L.O.W.

Best Animated Show: Young Justice

Best Reality Show: Survivor

Best Remake, Reboot, or (non-comic book) Adaptation: Miracle Workers

Best Miniseries: Little Drummer Girl

Best Talk Show: Pardon the Interruption

Best New Show: Doom Patrol

Guiltiest Guilty Pleasure: The Bold Type

Worst Show I Made Though an Entire Season Of: A Discovery of Witches

Best Hour of TV: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (Game of Thrones)

Best Half Hour of TV: The Good Twin (G.L.O.W.)

Biggest Shocker: Bran won the game of thrones?

Best Line: The Donkey Doug who was banned from Disney World for biting Buzz Lightyear? (Tahani, The Good Place)

Worst Idea: Jon Snow’s Battle of Winterfield battle plan. Seriously, dude almost wiped out the Dothraki with that stupid opening attack, there was not enough fire, how about an extra moat of fire, more protection for Bran than arrow, and if Tormand could go around the army of the dead, how about a sneak attack from the back

Worst Moment: Danenerys going full Mad Queen for no apparent reason after spending eight season insisting she did not want to be the Queen of the Ashes

Biggest Disappointment: Cersie was killed by falling rocks instead of Arya killing her with Jamie’s face fulfilling The Valonqar Prophecy (really, Arya only crossing two names off her list during the whole run was extremely disappointing too)

Best Musical Moment: Right Here Waiting (The Good Place)

Best Karaoke: Jenny of Oldstones – Ser Podrick Payne

Best New Title Sequence: Doom Patrol

Best Character: Jason Mendoza (The Good Place)

Best Recurring Character: Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man (Doom Patrol)

Best Guest Appearance: Donkey Doug (The Good Place)

Best Cast Addition: Kristin Chenoweth (Trial and Error)

Best Duo: Arya Stark and the Hound

Most Entertaining Reality “Star”: Lauren O’Connell (Survivor)

Best Lauren Eyeroll:


Most Annoying Reality “Star”: Rick Devins (Survivor)

Most Anticipated New Show of Next Season: The Great

Most Anticipated Reboot: Veronica Mars

Show That Should Be Brought Back: Game of Thrones (or at least an Arya going West of Westeros spinoff)

Biggest Question for 2019-2020: Is anyone actually getting into The Good Place by the end of the show?

The Best Television Shows of 2018-2019

1. Doom Patrol 1.x

2. The Good Place 3.x

3. Miracle Workers 1.x

4. G.L.O.W. 2.x

5. Future Man 2.x

6. The Act 1.x

7. Angie Tribeca 4.x

8. Shameless 9.x

9. Harlots 2.x

10. Game of Thrones 8.x


Shows that aired a majority of their season between July 2018 and June 2019 were eligible for this list.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: July 14, 2019

Big Little Lies: The random, bizarre interactions between Reece’s husbands have been the best part of this season. One of them has to die, right? There seems to be an increasing amount of shots of that bridge, I am beginning to think something has to happen there. A car accident? Someone jumps off (Zoey Kravitz has to be the leading candidate there). But back to weird scenes, we finally got someone of a payoff from the weirdest part of the season premiere where the chick stops Adam Scott to talk about her boob job. Clearly she wanted to get back at her husband, but then we get to see the husband watching his wife hit on Adam Scott. If that his penitence to his wife, he has to watch his wife have sex with the husband of the girl he cheated on with? This show is its most entertaining when it gets pretty weird.

Claws: Oh yeah, Desna and Dean have a father. I do not even remember him being referenced before, just their time in foster care. But the power struggle between the casino and Desna just is becoming cumbersome. Didn’t she inherit a bunch of other properties from the Jamaican? I do not know, if someone almost kills me and my loved ones and have other properties to fall back on, I would go ahead be a silent partner like they want.
You can download Claws on iTunes.

City on a Hill: I did not even realize that there was not a “previously On…” montage before, instead the show opts for a couple title cards to remind people what is going on. I do think actual moving images and voices helps reminding what happened better.

Fear the Walking Dead: I fell as I missed something. There was just a disconnect of having two episodes end with the Lord of the Flies. Then we got what Al has been up to for the last couple weeks ending with her finding Morgan. Then without explanation, Lord of the Flies kids start off the episode just chilling. It just seems like I missed an episode or three. But I did love the absurdity of the episode ending with the giant beer hot air balloon.
You can download Fear the Walking Dead on iTunes.

Legion: Um, so this kind of just like Intersteller but without the Wormhole?
You can download Legion on iTunes.

The Handmaid’s Tale: So Aunt Lydia became the horrible person she is today because she got blue balled? Alrighty. But I do wonder if the mother is around somewhere now. You know Gilliad is in need of child bearing women. And I do wish they would do more flashbacks, Lydia’s was long overdue, but as they struggle where to go after the books, maybe going backwards and show how we got to the book could be more interesting. Talking about present day, what is Ofjoseph doing? I understand she feels untouchable because they need her to get her daughter back to Gilliad, but what happens if that happens? She just might het her tongue cut out.
You can watch The The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu.

Krpton: Oh wow, so Lyta died. Of course I have watched way too much television to believe she is dead. Or at the very least she will stay dead. She has not even given birth to or gotten strangled by her son. I cannot remember the show, but I vaguely remember a character getting their throat cut and then the next week, they were like, oh, it was not that deep (Hannibal I think). So it could be that. Could be a hologram. She could just be resurrected. All I know is I just do not believe we have seen the last of Lyta alive and breathing.
You can download Krypton on iTunes.

Swamp Thing: Just when you thought Avery being Matt’s daddy was going to be the biggest shocker of the episode, it was a plot between both of Avery’s lover to kill him. The least shocking moment was the reveal that Avery is not dead yet. But the big question now is has the swamp changed him much like Swamp Thing?

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: So May shot not-Coiusen after all that. But since he is alien, I guess it is possible that he can survive human bullets. But it is weird that May shot first and did not bother to even ask questions. Maybe she knows something we do not yet. And there were some cryptic things between weird bat lady and not-Coulsen. Something about remembering her name and now she will help him remember his. There was also something about new skin. Could that really be Coulsen and the alien took a recently dead person’s body when he transported to this world and may still have some of Coulsen’s memory deep down? Speaking of weird bat lady, just where did she go? I thought for sure she did something to the pilot when he passed out, he just stayed passed out and no one seemed to be at all worried. Maybe nothing really happened to him and he just cannot hold his alcohol very well.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.