Around the Tubes: February 1, 2920

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 Desus and Mero, Def Leppard, lovelytheband, Kate Tempest, Disgraceland, Keb’ Mo’, Angie Rose, COOKED: Survival by Zip Code, The Circus, and Friends.

- Desus and Mero returns with special guest David Letterman joining the duo in-studio to kick off season two on Monday, February 3 at 11 p.m. ET/PT on Showtime. The show will continue to air all-new episodes on Monday and Thursday nights. Desus and Mero features the duo chatting with guests at the intersection of pop culture, sports, music, politics and more, as well as giving their take on the day’s hot topics in their signature style in front of a small live studio audience from New York City. Additional upcoming guests include Missy Elliott, Penn Badgley, Lakeith Stanfield, Seth Meyers and returning guest Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

- Legendary British rock ‘n’ roll icons and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame® inductees Def Leppard release The Early Years 79-81 box set, representing the band’s first two albums, On Through The Night (1980) and High ‘N’ Dry (1981), on March 20 via UMe/Virgin. The box set was executive produced by lead singer Joe Elliott and mastered by the band’s long serving sound engineer Ronan McHugh. Joe Elliott says of the box set, “Well the fans asked, and we listened! Really excited to have our early years reworked with a load of rare material including the newly unearthed Live at the Oxford New Theatre, recorded on the 1980 UK tour …. It’s been a trip putting this box set together and I hope you all enjoy listening to it as much as we did working on it!” Pre-order The Early Years 79-81 box set HERE.

- This week, alternative pop trio lovelytheband is back with their brand-new single “loneliness for love. The track is packed with an energetic beat, glistening keys, and nimble guitar that pulsates alongside sweeping verses and an instantly irresistible chorus. “loneliness for love” is available now at all digital retail providers via The Century Family, Inc. Click HERE to listen.

- British spoken word artist, rapper, poet, novelist and playwright Kate Tempest releases her new song, “Unholy Elixir”—listen HERE! The track, produced and mixed by Dan Carey, is accompanied by a video created by illustrator Natalya Lobanova—watch HERE!

- Jake Brennan, host of “Disgraceland” in partnership with iHeartRadio, released the first episode of the podcast “27 Club,” a musical, true-crime iHeartRadio Original Podcast that tells the stories of musicians who have joined rock and roll’s most infamous and morbidly exclusive 27 Club. Over the course of 12 episodes, season one will analyze the life and death of one of the greatest guitarists of all time: Jimi Hendrix. “27 Club” will be distributed through the iHeartPodcast Network beginning today and can be heard now on iHeartRadio and everywhere else podcasts are available. Episode 2 will air this Thursday, January 30, with new episodes to follow every Thursday through the end of the season.

- he now five-time GRAMMY® Award-Winner, Keb’ Mo’, has earned another statue for his mantel for Best Americana Album, awarded for his critically acclaimed album Oklahoma released via Concord Records on June 14, 2019.

- Rising hip-hop artist Angie Rose has released her latest single “Infatuation” today, an up-tempo track that tells the story of a girl who grows in personal strength and independence, as she overcomes an initially deceptive attraction to a man, by realizing those feelings were ultimately nothing more than infatuation. Highlighting her raw energy and undaunted songwriting, the single promises to become a radio staple.

- The new feature documentary COOKED: Survival by Zip Code, a searing exploration into the politics of “disaster,” blends investigative reporting about the deadly 1995 Chicago heat wave with a potent argument that the best preparation for a disaster may start with investing in racial and economic justice. COOKED: Survival by Zip Code will have its national television debut on the PBS television series Independent Lens this Monday, February 3 at 10:00 pm (check local listings), preceding coverage of the Iowa Caucuses. The film will also be available to stream at PBS.org and on the free PBS Video App throughout Black History Month.

- This week on The Circus, Alex Wagner goes backstage with Andrew Yang, who talks about the future of his campaign, how he voted for Bernie Sanders in 2016, and his chances in Iowa on caucus night.

- On September 22, 1994 the first episode of Friends aired on NBC, and since then the series, characters and its infamous taglines have become a global phenomenon. After 236 episodes and its ten season run on-air, the beloved series went into syndication episodes on a number of networks, and in 2015 Netflix acquired the exclusive rights to stream the series; eventually becoming one of most watched shows on the platform, until the close of 2019! So where have your “Friends” been, now that its 2020? According to Ross, “We Were On A BREAK!” from streaming - but have no fear, you can still get all of your favorite episodes on Digital, Blu-ray and DVD today!

57 Channels and Only This Is On: January 26, 2020

Ray Donovan: So OG Bridget was pregnant and knocked up by Succession Daddy when she jumped off the roof? Somehow that death got even darker. But no one asked the question I would have asked, did she actually jump or was Succession Daddy getting rid of two problems at once? But after two or three seasons, is the show going back to California? Bridget says she wants to go home. Ray did follow her there. Terry was just there to train a boxer which faded away. Mickey and Bunchy just came to this coast to avoid the law. The whole Donovan tribe could migrate back west. Hey, maybe Connor is just hanging out in the house alone this whole time. I would not mind the move back because the setting was much better there.

Dare Me: Oh wow, finally an entertaining scene with the two half-sisters in therapy with their daddy. More of that please. Less lip biting, too, please. Really more proof, she dies by the end of the season, probably by her own hand.

Shameless: Wait, is the chick would go through great lengths to set up Frank because he got her boyfriend and just casually mentions she is taking a vacation? I thought for sure that was another ploy by her to get back at Frank. Maybe that will come next episode. But if going on two dates at once, a big sitcom clichéd plot, is the best the show can come up with now, maybe it is a good thing they announce next season will be it last (until it is inevitably rebooted in five years). Okay, Mickey as bridezilla was pretty funny.

The Outsider: If you are a super prestige show that does not want its characters to devolve into a caricature, maybe should not introduce your character on the spectrum with a Sheldon Cooper bit. But she did shout out my doppelgänger theory even though it seems to be already debunked as it seems like we are dealing with a shape shifter. Then what was going on in prison? Dude implanted a shiv, but had to craft a shiv to get the other shiv inside him. Then used it to kill himself. Did I miss an episode?

Supergirl: So Crisis gave us a soft reboot which you think would have fixed one of the bigger flaws of this season in Lena’s irrational hated of Supergirl but instead Lex somehow gave her all of her memories. Meh. Even worse, Crisis gave us multiple Braniac 5’s. Ugg. But why were they talking about there only being one Earth now? We saw at the end of Crisis that Doom Patrol et al were still on different Earths? Are they just being self-centered that now that Supergirl is on the same Earth as The Flash and Black Lightning that there are no other Earths out there? Where do they think all those people went? Just were not brought back after they rebooted the timeline? And what happened to Miss Tessmacher? Lena essentially killed her last season turning her into a robot? Is she still a robot? Is she dead? Is she back as a secretary at CatCo? Since Lex never was “evil” in this timeline, does she not become evil? Is she with Leviathan? It was weird that she ran into Leviathan is the season finale, but that really was not brought up this season.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Manifest: Really, all that to get cave boy out of prison after he pleads guilty? Just seemed like they need to fill and extra episode. And I missed the connection between yoga mom and the university guy? Are they plotting something together?

Vikings: Well the episode title, Valhalla Ca Wait turned out to be a huge spoiler. Though I did think the skies would open up and put out the flames, instead it was his brother who would save him. Then with three episodes left (at least until the end of the half season, I kind of hate when they block off episodes like this, just call each ten episodes a season if the next ten will not air for months) we finally go back to Iceland. I wonder if we will finally get any definitive proof of Loki, dead or alive.

The Good Place: I did not like all the Best Show of the Decades that came out late last year, I thought it was silly to rank The Good Place with five episodes remaining which no one is not going to be considered when ranking the Best Shows of the 20’s. What is the show had a Game of Thrones type ending that knocks it down five to ten spots? Really, if the door they came up with this week, which sounded very pro-suicide to me, turns out to be suicide, this show might sink more than ten spot on my list which I hope to have out before the end of the year… I hope.
You can download The Good Place on iTunes.