Around the Tubes: August 24, 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 The Avett Brothers, Clairo, chloe mk, The Cerny Brothers, Killer in Our Classroom: Never Again, Apple Music, and The L Word Generation Q.

- Grammy Award®-nominated collective The Avett Brothers performed “High Steppin’” and “Trouble Letting Go” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! The band debuted the artwork for their anticipated album Closer Than Together [American/Republic Records] out Friday, October 4, 2019, on the show. Watch “High Steppin’” Performance HERE. Watch “Trouble Letting Go” Performance HERE.

- Apple Music today announced singer-songwriter Clairo as the latest addition to its Up Next program, Apple Music's monthly artist initiative geared towards identifying, showcasing and elevating rising talent. Following the release of "Pretty Girl" and "Flaming Hot Cheetos", whose videos quickly garnered millions of views, Clairo's debut full-length release Immunity, released earlier this month via FADER Label, quickly earned her praise from fans and critics alike. Co-produced by Clairo with Rostam, the album achieves just the right balance of focus and fuzz, expanding Clairo's sonic vocabulary with melodic lo-fi arrangements, including the breakup lament "Bags" and the same-sex love anthem "Sofia".

- New York-based, “internet-pop” singer-songwriter chloe mk releases the official music video for “David Bowie” today. Watch HERE. Listen to Fantasy EP HERE via Republic Records. Refinery29 premiered the “David Bowie” music video, describing the new visual as “nostalgic” while adding “Chloe’s voice spells out a longing for something more and from a different dimension, as her lyrics are capsuled in static waves of blue and green.”

- Musicians, storytellers, midwestern philosophers, The Cerny Brothers has released their latest single, “Where I’m Going,” ahead of the kickoff of their long-awaited tour this fall where they will open for Christone “KINGFISH” Ingram and Justin Townes Earle on key dates. Already available for purchase and streaming, “Where I’m Going” will be impacting AAA radio on September 3rd as a follow up to "I Wanna Love You." Watch their performance of “Where I’m Going” live at Paste Studios NYC here.

- The newest installment of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning ‘Fuse Docs’ franchise, Minnow Films’ Killer in Our Classroom: Never Again follows students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida as they crusade for stricter gun laws in the aftermath of one of the worst mass school shootings in recent history. US Television Premiere Date: Friday, August 23 at 10p on Fuse.

- Every day deserves a new song to go with it. Today, Apple Music launched New Music Daily, the company's first premiere global editorial playlist to be updated with brand new music every single day. New Music Daily will feature more than 60 tracks that speak to Apple Music's editorial point of view on the best new music from around the world delivered... you guessed it! Daily. Consider it your carefully curated, hand-picked library filled with brand-new, fresh tracks from the best artists across every genre of music, from pop to rap to reggaeton and much more. Additionally Apple Music editors will choose one song each day to feature in the top spot on the playlist and the selected artist will be featured as the New Music Daily playlist cover star for the day. New Music Daily launches today with brand new music from cover star Taylor Swift as well as newly released tracks from Tainy (featuring Ozuna and Anuel AA), Missy Elliott, Jax Jones and 5 Seconds of Summer just to name a few. Check it out HERE and don't forget to add it to your library!

- Showtime has released a first-look teaser for its new series The L Word Generation Q premiering on Sunday, December 8 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The sequel to the groundbreaking drama series THE L WORD®, which originally ran on SHOWTIME from 2004-2009, continues to follow the intermingled lives of Bette Porter (Jennifer Beals), Alice Pieszecki (Leisha Hailey) and Shane McCutcheon (Katherine Moennig), along with new characters Dani Nùñez (Arienne Mandi), Micah Lee (Leo Sheng), Finley (Jacqueline Toboni), Sophie Suarez (Rosanny Zayas) and Gigi (Sepideh Moafi) as they experience love, heartbreak, sex, setbacks and success in L.A.

Previewing On Becoming a God in Central Florida

What a weird time we are in right now for television. Take On Becoming a God in Central Florida. First off, only in a time of Peak TV could something with that title get made. And even then, it almost did not make it to air. The show actually started as an AMC show. But then six months after AMC announced they were developing the show, YouTube Red Premium announced they had ordered the show to series.

A full year later, Showtime announce they acquired the show because YouTube pretty much announced they are getting out of the scripted game, getting rid of their paid tier only show and making everything free with ads. They just announced last week they are basically canceling all their scripted shows except Cobra Kai and Impulse whose second season is coming this fall (and then likely will be canceled shortly thereafter).

So YouTube’s loss is Showtime’s gain. They get this fully produced show and I am guessing they had to pay bargain basement prices because Tri-Star needed a place to put the show after YouTube passed. But is this show that has gone through three different networks any good? Um, maybe. But it certainly is as weird as it title suggests.

Kirsten Dunst (The Virgin Suicides) is married to an unrecognizable Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood) who is deep into FAM (Founders American Merchandise) which is part pyramid scheme part cult, all parts shady. The couple is comfortably near the bottom of the pyramid as they continue their minimum-wages J.O.B.s (or Just Over Broke) at the start of the season, but as the title suggest, they are slowly moving their way up the ladder while a few roadblocks put them back at the bottom.

Soon Dunst pulls in her neighbors and co-workers in hopes of pulling herself up the pyramid until she meets the guy at the top Ted Levine (Silence of the Lambs) and starts to question the whole experience. Since this is Central Florida in the late eighties, there are plenty of weird characters, one who I can best describe as John Waters if John Waters was a hitman (unfortunately no one as weird as Donkey Doug shows up). And the show only gets weirder the higher up the pyramid gets which mean it gets more entertaining as it goes along.

On Becoming a God in Central Florida airs Sundays at 10:00 on Showtime.

Previewing The Affair: The Final Season

The Affair has always been a weird show with its duel narrative that got turned into a four person narrative (and increasingly more), but then they went and killed the second lead in Alison, then announced her on screen baby daddy would not return for the final season. Oh, but they cast Anna Paquin as the two actors that are no longer on the show’s daughter. And do not expect too much of the grown up Joanie who is on screen at least in the first couple episodes because she is on screen for maybe ten minutes in the first couple episodes and spends a couple minutes of those in various states of the undressed.

But I will says Joanie scenes are some of the most entertaining parts of the last season because of the weird choices the writers makes of what life will be like in about three decades (in Joanie’s first episode she is celebrating the birthday of the same year her mother died). Basically the writers think there are LED screens on basically everything and smart toilets are a little too smart. But my favorite is the future fireworks.

Back in present day, or whatever year it is then because Noah mentions he wrote his book eight years ago which I believe he wrote between the second and third season that aired about four years ago. And now that book, by all accounts sounds horrible is being made into a movie by a guy who calls himself a “modern James Bond’ type. Um, they are still making James Bond in the modern era. But anyway.

Whitney, who I believe did not show up until the final episode last season, is actually in the first three episodes this season. The good news is she is much less annoying than in the past. The bad news is she now has bangs which very few people look good with. But she does not get here own act (yet). Noah, Helen, and Joanie (this season looks like it is going to go with a three act structure), but we do get one surprise perspective early on.

Sure her live in boyfriend had a terminal disease in the last season, I cannot help to predict that Noah and Helen end back together. It just feels very full circle at this point. He even says to her, “If there’s one person I’d want to be with when I die, it’d be you.” Which very well may happen. We do not see him in Joanie’s future. Granted it begs the question, what exactly is him to her now? He did raise her for the first couple years before learning of Cole’s patronage. We actually do not see anyone else from the show in Joanie’s future just yet. Which kind of makes her part of the show the most interesting. I wonder if anyone else shows up in her time. Will she get an expanded role in future episodes? Will anyone from her time get their own act? Only time will tell I guess.

The Affair airs Sundays at 9:00 on Showtime.

Previewing This Way Up

Now that Game of Thrones is over, we can see just how popular the individual characters are now that they are no longer on the biggest show in the world. Although since the show has not shone away from killing off big named characters we actually know just how they might fair. And it is not good. Take the first high profile person who died, Ned Stark. He actually managed to get a show into the second season but that is one of the few. He is actually been the star three post Thrones shows and has gone from ABC to TNT to A Spectrum Original, whatever that is. Things are not much better on the movie side as Sansa Stark and Daenerys Targaryen have managed to tank three long running, major franchise.

Despite these setbacks, Hulu seems to be starting a Thrones restoration project. Theon Greyjoy joined the cast of Harlots in the third season. Except the season is not over and Theon went own ore pathetically than when he tried to kill the Knight King. Then Missandei, (who met a very unnecessary death, seriously, jump off the wall when someone is ordered to cut off your head, a broken leg is better than no head) a British person in real life, plays an American who travels to Britain in Four Weddings and a Funeral that got panned by critics and unwatched by the general product.

Now Hulu is bringing a British import stateside with two Thrones alum in the cast for This Way Up. Granted unlike everyone I mentioned before, these two were bit players on Thrones. There is Edmure Tully who hilariously tried to make his claim to the throne after being absent for most of the show. Also on the show is Ellaria Sand who turned out to be so insignificant we still do not know what happen to her. Did Cercie kill her? Was she crushed when Dany ransacked the Red Keep? Can we assume she died since there was an unnamed new Prince of Dorne during the meeting of the high lords (and Davos) at the end?

But these two are also bit players on This Way Up (but at least they get a conclusion to their storylines at the end of the season). The show stars Aisling Bea and Sharon Horgan (Game Night) who also produce the show. The show starts up with the latter checking the former out of a rehabilitation centre. And hilarity ensues. But this is not really a sad sack comedy about mental disorders; the rehab stint is not really brought up much.

But Bea’s character does definitely use humor as a defense. And the stand-up comic can land a line. The show is a real showcase for Bea who is probably not known stateside (the only thing I noticed on her IMDB was Assassin’s Creed III). When she is not having a nervous breakdown, Bea teaches English as a Second language including one on one tutoring which is where Edmure comes in as his son has moved from France to live with him.

Since it is a British show, This Way Up is just six twenty-five minute episode so if you want, you could just make the show a two and a half hour movie. And it is definitely the type a show you can burn through because Bea is so electric, you will be left wanting more. And since it is airing on an American streaming service, all episodes are available on Hulu now. Sorry actual British people where the show is still being aired in weekly installments.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: August 18, 2019

Veronica Mars: Episode 5: So after episode three, I predicted that J.K. Simmons was the bomber and became a suspect for Mars Investigations in episode four. Then in episode four I started to suspect the bar owner who the Mars Clan started to suspect in episode five. Let’s see if that trend continues for the next episode when I start pointing the finger at the Pizza Guy. Or at the very least I think he wrote the letter because obviously the bomber dis not because there was still another bomb later. I think Pizza Guy was more excited that someone realized that he planted a lot of Dickisms that the chick found out.

Episode 6: Holy Clarence Weedman sighting! I joked a couple episodes ago they are bringing back all the actors they could not reasonably explain showing up in the movie, but maybe I was on to something after CW, the Fighting Fitzpatricks, the guys in Chino, and Mac’s college boyfriend. Who is going to show up in the final two episodes: Chip Diller? Hannah Griffith? Troy Vandergraf? Shelley Pomroy? But anyway. It was kind of shocking that we learned who the bomber was in the antepenultimate episode. Well, at the very least Big Dick admitted to setting off the first bomb, he conspicuously did not mention any guilt over the other bombs killing people. So who was inspired from that first bombing and why?
You can watch Veronica Mars on Hulu.

Claws: Well that was a clusterfork of a finale. And what are they going to do next season? Really, everyone should go on the run since they could all be implicated in the killing a vicious, high ranking gang member. I mean, assuming (dude’s not escaping from a burning casino, locked in a room with no windows. Oh wait, the show started with Roller being shot, point blank, drowned, stuffed in a body bag, dumped in a swamp, and still managed to survive.
You can download Claws on iTunes.

City on a Hill: Ow wow, Jimmy actually likes a great song. I really have trashed his music so far, but Know the Ledge is a great one. The world needs an Eric B. and Rakim resurgence. Now that the show has been officially renewed, and they got the brothers dead to rights, it looks like season two will be Decourcey vs. Kevin Bacon. At least hopefully the charges stick. But I do wonder if Jimmy will get a sweet deal for being an informant for Kevin Bacon.

Fear the Walking Dead: So they are not even going to mention that Alicia got sprayed with radioactive zombie blood last episode? Maybe she should be checking her lymph nodes like the scientist.
You can download Fear the Walking Dead on iTunes.

The Loudest Voice: It is weird the amount of times Megyn Kelly’s name came up during the episode but we never see her. I guess we will have to wait until the movie to get her side.

The Handmaid’s Tale: I actually thought for a second that opening scene was sometime in the future, it was not until the crazy eye chick showed up less crazy and with both eyes before realizing it was the past. But I do not see how Ofjoseph gets out of stealing a bunch of children. She was basically playing with house money this season in Commander Lawrence’s house and the Waterford’s needed her for visual reasons to get their kid back, but with the Waterford’s detained, there is nothing stopping her being severely punished. Speaking of being punished, are they really going to lock up Serena over the word of Fred? Can they even hold Fred if Serena stops talking because they locked her up? And then does Serena get set free because he does not testify? Locking Serena up just seems like a foolish move.
You can watch The The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu.

Harlots: Oh wow, they really did kill off Theon Greyjoy already just two episodes after killing off Charlotte. There was a lot of blood and he was shot at short range but I still thought he might survive because why bring on Theon for just five episodes especially after just killing off the lead actor. So both Charlotte and Theon are dead shortly after they started forking and basically died because they kept that a secret.
You can watch Harlots on Hulu.

Krpton: With a title like “The Alpha and the Omega” I should have suspected there would be Darkseid reference, but it did not hit me until the clone lady saw the Omega sign. Yippie, more villains next season when they have not bothered to totally dispatch the ones they already have. Well that is if there is a next season.
You can download Krypton on iTunes.