Around the Tubes: December 4, 2021

   

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting.  This post includes blurbs on U2, Dead Asleep, Letterkenny, Chucky, Ariana Grande, Anthony Hamilton, From Apple Music With Love, and Best in Dough.

- Island Records, Interscope, and UMe announce the 30th Anniversary Edition release of U2’s seminal album Achtung Baby, with a special Standard and Deluxe vinyl release available now, and a 50-track digital box set available this Friday, December 3, 2021.  Thirty years ago, Bono described Achtung Baby as “the sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree” while Jon Pareles of the New York Times wrote that “stripped-down and defying its old formulas, U2 has given itself a fighting chance for the 1990's”. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance and became one of the most significant records of the nineties and of U2’s career.  Recorded over six months at Hansa Studio in Berlin and Windmill Lane in Dublin, Achtung Baby is U2’s seventh studio album. Produced by long-time U2 collaborators Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno with Steve Lillywhite, Achtung Baby was engineered by Flood and released on November 18, 1991. Lead by The Fly, four other singles followed: Mysterious Ways, One, Even Better Than The Real Thing, and Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses. Watch HERE:

- Check out the new trailer for the Hulu Original documentary "Dead Asleep," premiering Thursday, December 16th on Hulu. In a ground-breaking new spin on the true-crime genre, the documentary film “Dead Asleep,” produced in association with Sky Crime, flips the traditional thriller narrative to explore a deeper and more troubling mystery: Did a remorseful Randy Herman Jr. really commit a brutal murder in his sleep, or was it a convenient cover story? Pulse Films has secured exclusive access to Herman and his family, the defense and prosecution attorneys, journalists who covered the case, forensic psychiatrists and world experts in violent parasomnia (sleep-walking) to give viewers an inside look at the shocking twists and turns of the controversial crime.

- LETTERKENNY Season Ten premieres on Hulu Sunday, December 26th.  Get in the LETTERKENNY spirit with this new video!  The residents of Letterkenny belong to one of three groups: the Hicks, the Skids, and the Hockey Players, who are constantly feuding with each other over seemingly trivial matters that often end with someone getting their ass kicked. In season 10, McMurray and Wayne do some dickering, the Hicks attend a sausage party, the Hockey Players and Skids have a video game battle, the men of Letterkenny receive head to toe physicals…and that’s just for starters, buddy.

- The USA Network/SYFY hit series “Chucky” has been renewed for a second season.  SYFY is the home to the top two new cable series of 2021 in the 18-49 demo: “Resident Alien” followed by “Chucky” (live +7).  Across all platforms, “Chucky” has reached 9.5 million viewers in its first season.  “We’re thrilled to start pulling the strings on a second season of puppet mayhem with ‘Chucky,’” said executive producer Don Mancini. “Many thanks to our partners at USA, SYFY and UCP for their incredible support and guidance bringing ‘Chucky’ to the small screen, bigger than ever. And to the fans, Chucky sends his still-undying thanks and a message: ‘This isn’t over, not by a long shot. You better watch your backs in 2022!’”

- Republic Records has announced a December 10th release for Don’t Look Up (Soundtrack From the Netflix Film), available for pre-order HERE.  The soundtrack includes the brand-new track, “Just Look Up” featuring Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi, who star in the film—and perform the song—as pop music power couple Riley Bina and DJ Chello.  Click HERE to listen and HERE to watch the official lyric video.  “Just Look Up” was co-written by Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi, 2-time Academy Award-nominated / Emmy winning composer Nicholas Britell and Oscar nominated songwriter Taura Stinson. 

- GRAMMY® Award-winning, multiplatinum singer, songwriter, producer, and actor Anthony Hamilton has set the tone for R&B in 2021 with his universally applauded tenth full-length and first album in five years, Love Is The New Black. It is available now as the flagship record under his own label My Music Box in partnership with BMG.  Listen to Love Is The New Black — HERE!!!  Upon arrival this fall, Love Is The New Black garnered rave reviews from the likes of NPR, who praised Hamilton’s “vulnerability” and called him “everyone’s little secret.” CLTURE hailed the album, writing that he “created another soundtrack for our lives.” Soul Tracks wrote that the project is as “cool, captivating and charismatic as the hue he's paying tribute to.” In total, the record has already gathered five million global streams to date.

- Apple Music is getting into the giving spirit this holiday season with the launch of From Apple Music With Love, a special countdown to the holidays. Each day at 8:00a PST from November 26 - December 3, Apple Music subscribers will receive exclusive gifts from some of the biggest and brightest names in music, stamped with love and ready for unwrapping. Gifts range from exclusive EPs in Spatial Audio, to a behind-the scenes documentary films, to special holiday playlists, radio episodes, DJ mixes, and beyond.   Today’s exclusive gift comes from Elton John: an exclusive look inside his recent collaborations album, The Lockdown Sessions. In this exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, Elton and some of the musical partners from The Lockdown Sessions discuss via FaceTime the stories and process of creating this most unique of albums during lockdown. Learn more about the making of the album through his chats with Stevie Nicks, Eddie Vedder, Miley Cyrus, Charlie Puth, Brandi Carlile, Damon Albarn, Olly Alexander, and many more.  Tune in every day at 8am PST to keep counting down the holidays with an exclusive gift every day on Apple Music HERE. 

- Hulu today announced new Original series "Best in Dough", the latest addition to its delectable lineup of unscripted food series, from Alfred Street Industries, Vox Media Studios and Majordomo Media. The first season will consist of 10 episodes.  In a world where there seems to be little agreement on anything, there is one great unifier… the universal love of pizza. "Best In Dough" brings together pizza obsessed competitors from all walks of life to showcase their pizza slinging skills and battle it out for $10,000. Fire up the oven, the first ever pizza competition is on!  "Best in Dough" is hosted by Wells Adams with head judge Chef Daniele Uditi of Pizzana, and features Chef Millie Peartree, comedian and food influencer Eunji Kim and baker Bryan Ford serving as judges.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: November 28, 2021

 

Dexter: New Blood:  Oh no, Dexter almost foiled by another CSI guy.  Pretty naïve for him to think some other professional would not think of it.  At least he has gotten rid of the body now.  I find it interesting that Dexter claimed the father was lying about his son face-timing him, my first thought was that he was so drunk he was making up.  But speaking of disposing of bodies, what exactly does that dude do with the bodies?  It looked like he was embalming it, which means he preserving them, so where does he put them?  Then we have a true crime podcaster showing up because apparently every murder show needs a true crime podcast attach to it now.  This new one is no Mabel Mora.

 

Fear the Walking Dead:  Well, that was confusing with Al and her filming and trying to figure out when everything was happening when.

 

Yellowjackets:  Oh wow, Misty is really a psychopath.  Sure they teased that in the premiere with her hunting down, killing, and eating someone.  But we actually saw it this week as she destroyed the black box.  But are black boxes not as indestructible as we were meant to believe in that a teenage girl can destroy it?  Or is it some poetic license?  There does seem to be some poetic license that they cannot find them for nineteen month.  It really cannot be that hard to find a plane in the Canadian wilderness.  But Ricci also seemed to grow up to be a psychopath because it certainly seems like she did something to Nat’s car.  But the big shock was a pair of guys survived the crash, and technically the coach, and at the very least Travis makes it out of the Canadian wilderness.  Though being the only guys surrounded by a bunch of girls may not be as great there as it would be anywhere else in society.

 

The Walking Dead: World Beyond:  So their plan was to get locked inside the facility.  Okay.  Let us see how this plays out with two episodes left.

 

La Brea:  So we have a Back to the Future situation where if the kid does not go through the portal, his kids would die.  But if he does not go through the portal, wouldn’t his wife’s complete life change and would possibly be transported to wherever she would have been had she not met her husband?  This is kind of getting into Endgame levels of nonsensical time travel rules.  But it looks like Lily will also go through the portal, but will any of the adults also make the trip?

 

Hawkeye:  The first episode was a bit of a bore whenever Hailee Steinfeld was not on screen.  I could care less about Clint and his kids.  But at least they left town.  Thankfully things picked up o\in the second episode after they finally crossed paths.  Hopefully it keeps up that pace now.  And just put Steinfeld in every MCU movie and show from her on out.

 

The Real World Homecoming: Los Angeles: Well that was rough.  I think the question is no longer if David gets booted again, but how many episodes will he last.  I would be shocked if he is still there by the end of episode three.

 

Survivor:  This was reminiscent of that time Wardog got Wentworth out and was quickly voted out the very next week.  Except Wardog had other allies in the game at the time, Ricard voted out his only ally and biggest shield.  Will Ricard quickly follow out his shield like Wardog will?  Tune in next week.  But he may need to go on an Immunity run because they were keen on getting him out last week.  Though the lack of allies may be to his advantage because it does make him look like less of a threat.  

 

The Challenge: Spies, Lies, and Allies: Holy fork, Emy is so annoying, where do they find these people?  Is it really that had to find non-annoying people?  But then again the other half of the cast is a bore.  Maybe they should bring back whoever was the casting director back from the Real World and Road Rules days because as The Senior Tour shows, there are plenty of entertain people on that show.  But this was yet another challenge that gave a steep advantage to whoever had the most people.  Granted Emerald almost lost.  Given the poor conditioning of Devin, Amanda, and Nany, Emerald may actually be at a disadvantage going into the finals if they keep all their players.

 

The Challenge: All-Stars: Ooof, those teams were a bit lopsided.  I wonder how long they will continue to be allowed to pick their teams.  Plus they just recycled the Tetris pieces from the main show’s elimination round.  But at least this show has some entertaining characters.  Though Ayanna had one of the biggest heel turns in the history of the show, helping Leah complete the elimination last week to just completely throwing Sophia under the bus then getting into the driver’s seat and running over her herself.  Ouch.