Around the Tubes: January 15, 2022

   

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  Dollface, The Legend of Vox Machina, Attica, The Great, Betty White, Adventure Time, The Reboot, Dexter: New Blood, The Plot, Eddie Vedder, Glass Animals, and Bastille.

- Check out the official trailer and key art for the upcoming season of Hulu’s original comedy series "Dollface"!  “Dollface” returns with 10 all-new episodes Friday, February 11, on Hulu.  Season two follows Jules (Kat Dennings) and her best friends - post pandemic, post heartbreak, heading toward turning thirty. Having successfully reunited with her friends (Brenda Song, Shay Mitchell, and Esther Povitsky), Jules must now balance keeping their group together as the women navigate work, love, and a deeper relationship with each of themselves.

- Prime Video starts off the new year with the release of the official trailer for The Legend of Vox Machina, the upcoming highly anticipated adult animated fantasy-adventure series from Critical Role and Titmouse. The first season will consist of 12 episodes, with three episodes premiering every week starting January 28 in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.   Based on the beloved characters and adventures of Critical Role’s first livestreamed tabletop role-playing game (RPG) campaign, The Legend of Vox Machina is an animated fantasy-adventure series for adults that follows Vox Machina, a band of misfits with a fondness for boozing and brawling. In a desperate attempt to pay off their mounting bar tab, these unlikely heroes end up on a quest to save the realm of Exandria from dark magical forces. From a sinister necromancer to a powerful curse, the group confronts a variety of obstacles that not only test their skills, but also the strength of their bond.

- Leading into Martin Luther King Jr. Day, SHOWTIME is releasing its Oscar-shortlisted documentary feature ATTICA for free, beginning today. Available for viewing through the end of Black History Month, ATTICA is on Sho.com and YouTube, as well as across multiple SHOWTIME streaming and on demand platforms.  SHOWTIME delves deep inside the bloodiest prison rebellion in U.S. history with ATTICA, a feature-length documentary from Emmy^®-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson (Freedom Riders, The Murder of Emmett Till) and co-director Traci A. Curry. Named one of the National Board of Review’s Top 5 Documentaries of 2021, the film recounts in vivid detail the five-day 1971 prison rebellion at the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York, which took the lives of 29 inmates and 10 hostages – the deadliest single day of violence Americans inflicted on each other since the Civil War.

- Hulu has renewed The Great, from Tony McNamara (THE FAVOURITE), for a 10-episode, third season. The critically acclaimed second season debuted on Hulu on Friday, November 19, 2021 and is certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes at 100%. The series is currently nominated for three Critics’ Choice Awards. 

- To honor and celebrate what would have been Betty's 100th birthday, on Monday, January 17, starting at 9 a.m. ET, Game Show Network will air a 4-hour marathon of $25,000 PYRAMID episodes featuring the golden girl of game shows. 

- h My Glob! Get ready embark on a magical journey through the Land of Ooo and beyond when Warner Bros. Home Entertainment brings the Emmy-nominated Max Original, Adventure Time: Distant Lands to Blu-ray and DVD on March 8, 2022.  Binge all four specials from the limited series and explore the unseen corners of their world with characters both familiar and brand-new. Adventure Time: Distant Lands is priced to own on Blu-ray for $19.98 SRP ($24.98 in Canada) and on DVD for $14.98 SRP ($19.98 in Canada).

- Hulu has ordered the Original comedy Reboot, from creator and executive producer Steve Levitan and 20^th Television to series.  Judy Greer will star opposite previously announced Keegan-Michael Key and Johnny Knoxville, replacing Leslie Bibb in the role of BREE.  Steeped in the irony of the television industry’s continuing inclination to “reboot” hit shows from the past, the series begins when Hulu reboots an early 2000’s family sitcom, forcing its dysfunctional cast back together. Now they must deal with their unresolved issues in today’s fast-changing world.  

- With its finale on Sunday, DEXTER: NEW BLOOD wrapped up a record-shattering season for SHOWTIME. For its 10-episode run, DEXTER: NEW BLOOD is averaging over 8 million weekly viewers across all platforms, becoming the most-watched series in SHOWTIME history. With a total of 3 million viewers on Sunday alone, this was the biggest SHOWTIME finale in more than eight years, surpassing the season-three finale of HOMELAND in 2013. The finale – written by series showrunner Clyde Phillips – also set a new SHOWTIME record with 2 million viewers from streaming and on demand platforms on Sunday.  Thanks in large part to DEXTER: NEW BLOOD and new drama series YELLOWJACKETS, SHOWTIME delivered the most signups in its history during the fourth quarter of 2021.

- After a highly competitive bidding war across multiple streaming platforms, Disney’s Onyx Collective has ordered the limited series “The Plot” from Endeavor Content. The eight-episode series will stream on Hulu in the U.S., Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ in all other territories.  The series is an adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name by Jean Hanff Korelitz. Korelitz’s book “You Should Have Known,” was also adapted into HBO’s “The Undoing” in 2020, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant.  “The Plot” stars and is executive produced by Oscar, Emmy^Ⓡ, BAFTA and NAACP Image Award-winning actor and producer Mahershala Ali (“Swan Song,” “Green Book,” “Moonlight”). Ali will produce along with executive producers Mimi Valdés and Amatus Karim Ali through their Know Wonder production company. Know Wonder recently produced the critically acclaimed feature film “Swan Song” and the Emmy-winning documentary “We Are the Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest.”

- Eddie Vedder releases a new single entitled “Brother the Cloud.” It heralds the arrival of his highly anticipated new album, Earthling, available on February 11th via Seattle Surf/Republic Records. The digital pre-order/pre-save for Earthling just went live on all streaming platforms—HERE and physical pre-order (cd, vinyl & cassette HERE).  Listen to “Brother the Cloud”—HERE.  Earthling, which was produced by Grammy Award® winning producer Andrew Watt, is Vedder’s first album since 2011’s Ukulele Songs and his first solo tour in over a decade.

- he distinctive nature of Brandon Boyd’s forthcoming album, ECHOES AND COCOONS (pre-order at https://orcd.co/echoesandcocoons ), is as evident in the newest single “Dime In My Dryer” as in the other singles that have been released thus far - “Pocket Knife” and “Petrichor.” SPIN describes the newest track as ‘curiously textured’ and today you can hear it for yourself.  “Dime In My Dryer” is a tale of discovery of what is important in life when forced to slow down.  “It was in the relative silence of a world mostly shut down that I noticed how loud things had been in the before-times,” explains Brandon. “Not the obvious part of my life that is governed by big sounds and traveling, no, but that chatter or noise that emits from our shared experience as people. All of a sudden it would stop for brief intervals and in those gaps is where I began to see the parts of my life and my general experience that offered more signal and less noise.”

- Critically acclaimed GRAMMY® Award nominated global sensations Glass Animals have started off 2022 with a recording-breaking milestone and first in their career—today, “Heat Waves” climbed to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, breaking the record for the longest climb to Top 5 in Hot 100 history at 51 weeks. Not to mention, “Heat Waves” rose to #3 on the Top 40 Radio Chart and #6 on the Hot AC Radio Chart this week, and over past two weeks, it peaked at #1 on Spotify US Top 50 Chart, surpassed 1 billion Spotify streams, and amassed a new peak of 969K streams on the platform in a day. In addition to their GRAMMY® Awards Nomination for Best New Artist, the band was also recently nominated for two BRIT Awards for Song of the Year (“Heat Waves”) and Best Rock/Alternative Act. They celebrated the announcement with a performance at “The BRITs Are Coming 2022”—watch HERE.

 - Bastille drops their latest single “Shut Off The Lights” from their fourth studio album Give Me The Future out February 4^th—listen to “Shut Off The Lights” HERE. To celebrate the upcoming album, today, Bastille announces their 2022 US tour dates as part of their upcoming “Give Me The Future Tour.” The US leg kicks off on May 14^th in Memphis, TN and makes stops in Los Angeles on May 20^th, New York on June 7^th, and more—see the full list of tour dates below. Tickets will be available via pre-sale starting on Tuesday, January 18^th and via general on-sale on Friday, January 21^st at 10AM local time at https://www.bastillebastille.com/.

Previewing Ray Donovan: The Movie

 

There is a running joke that once Showtime picks up a show, they will run it into the ground.  This is mostly thanks to Dexter and Weeds which premiered a year apart and both went on for eight seasons (and while the Dexter reboot just wrapped up, a Weeds reboot is also coming soon, albeit on Starz, not Showtime).  Over the next five years they would premiere shows like Homeland, Shameless, Californication, and Nurse Jackie that would go on for at least five seasons.  But the thing is, shows that premiered after that have not lasted that long.  In the past decade, there have been six one and done shows, while I’m Dying up Here, Dice, SMILF, and Kidding all got canned after two seasons.  The only shows that premiered in the past decade that Showtime let run forever like the old joke are Billion, about to start its sixth season, and Ray Donovan which went to seven season, but Showtime was trigger happy in canceling the show, ending the show without giving it the obligatory final season that most long running shows are afforded.

 

But after some outcry, the show will be able to wrap up properly with a two hour movie.  Now, the movie will be premiering almost two years to the day the finale aired.  To give you a sense as to how long ago that was, in January 2020, very few people were worried about COVID-19 back then.  By season seven, Ray and the rest of the Donovan clan had been in New York for most of the previous three seasons.  By my estimate, Ray and Mickie had tried to kill each other and reconciled a couple hundred times by then.  The season ended with a shootout between the Donovan’s and the Sullivan’s (Jimmy Sullivan raped Ray’s sister Bridget years ago resulting in Bridget taking a nose dive off a roof and the knowledge recently came to light) with Ray’s daughter’s husband Smitty dying as a result.

 

Thankfully the show starts off with a lengthy three minute recap but done like recent episode “Previously On” montage where it is just quick clips and very little dialogue.  Then in the first scene, Ray tells someone, “I killed my father.”  Wait, did I really forget Ray killed Mickie and they did not even put that part on the recap?  Well, no, and he did not kill him off screen either as Mickie shows up on screen, and like for much of the seventh season is trying to sell off papers worth multi-million dollar.  The “I killed my father” line is just a set up for the movie.

 

The movie is split up in two parts, and continues the trend of the seventh season where they flashback to the early life of the Donovan clan back in Boston.  Much how the modern day storyline picks up after the events of the shootout and starts with Smitty’s funeral, the flashback also start with a funeral, this time of Bridget’s.  The flashbacks also tie back into the events of season one as we see many things that are the catalyst of the beginnings of the series.

 

The whole Donovan clan is back.  Well, not Ray’s son who I guess is still in military school and does not even get one mention.  While not gratuitous, we do get to see a bunch of familiar faces, well in the case of some of the flashbacks; the names are familiar even if the faces are different.  While it takes some time to remember just where the last season left off (it may be wise to re-watch the finale before the movie) the movie does a good job tying up loose ends and should leave longtime fans satisfied.

 

Ray Donovan: The Movie airs Friday at 9:00 on Showtime.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: January 9, 2022

 

Dexter: New Blood:  I believe this was the very first time Dexter took down the Big Bad before the finale… unless he is the Big Bad and Angela takes Dexter down in the finale.  That would be a fitting end to the series… except they are definitely going to do another season eventually.  I thought we were going to get a full flashback episode like a lost episode of the original show, maybe with the whole gang returning, but alas.  Dexter cut that story short and waited to give the full story until they got into Kurt’s dollhouse. 

 

So that is where the podcaster at.  But much like how we never learned just how Kurt figured out Dexter killed his kid; we do not know how she ended up down there.  We know Kurt lured runaways to his hotel and locked them up, and he did try that once with the podcaster, was she actually dumb enough to go with him again?  Not that Kurt is very bright either.  Did he really think he would roll up on Dexter’s cabin in a large and loud tanker, spray the entire cabin with gasoline and wait for them to come out after the cabin was on fire?  Has anyone was actually there, they would have heard the tanker pull up.  Not that Dexter has a great plan either, alerting Kurt that he found his underground bunker.  What if he was close and locked them in?  And again we are treating that screw as some sort of smoking bullet.  How could that possibly tie back to Dexter?

 

Claws:  So the judge kept on bring up how Brice was not the biological father and then gives custody of the children… to his uncle who is not biologically related to the children.  Huh?  But I still think Jenn will eventually joining Uncle Daddy and Quiet Ann and eventually the whole group will turn on Desna.

 

Yellowjackets:  So Van was not the first to die and managed to survive having a wolf chew off half her face and make it back a couple of miles back to the cabin where they only have rudimentary antibiotics, most of which was used on coach’s leg.  Though there was something weird with her POV; could something mystical have kept her alive?  But we did not have to wait long to have an actual first death… assuming Laura Lee did not manage to survive that plane exploding the way Van survived being mauled.    I must say, when Nat talked to her sponsor, my first though was, oh, that is adult Laura Lee based solely on her looks.  C’mon Lottie, you saw Laura Lee encased in red a couple episodes, why are you letting her fly that plane?  Maybe give the talisman that she gave to Van that Tai stole and give it to Laura Lee.

 

We also got the big reveal that Adam was the blackmailer and has no digital footprint.  That really leans into the theory that Adam is really Javi.  Though I never bought into that theory because Javi have been very insignificant to this point, basically Shauna gave him a few pages of her diary and that was about it.  Plus the timeline does not really line up if Adam graduated in ’04, which would have made Javi about ten in 1996.  Javi at the very least looks like a middle schooler if not an underclassman.  But of course Adam could be lying about when he graduated.  If that really is Javi, then is he really behind the postcards and killed his brother?  The keep on pointing out that only family can get banking information so seems very likely he emptied the account.  But that would be a huge letdown if Javi was behind everything.

 

Psycho Misty update:  she did blow for the first time.  And a lot of it.  Aswesome.  Then she had to profusely apologize to her bird.  But just how long is she going to keep that reporter down there?  Until she solves Travis’s murder?  Then what?  Is she actually going to kill her or let her go?

 

But just how much time does Callie spend at her friend’s house?  She just came home to get a change of clothes.  She then eats with her parents but then Shauna said Tai could stay in her room because she was going back to the friend’s house to spend another night.  Things do seem like they are going to pick up next week with Homecoming (unless they save that for the finale).  Will we finally get to learn of some of the other survivor?  Will One Eyed Van show up?  It will be annoying if of the other survivor besides the main four decide to skip the event and we are still left guessing.  And Jeff was Homecoming King?  Was Jackie the queen then?  This may be as awkward as that dinner with Jackie’s parents.

 

The Book of Boba Fett:  Holy Hutt sighing.  But those twins are giving off big time Lannister vibes.  Do they really need to be that close to each other?  It does seem like maybe the Hutt’s are behind the assassination plot from last week and are in cahoots with the Mayor.

 

The Challenge: All-Stars: Well, there goes my prediction of Jodi and Brad winning,  I thought they might pull I out because it seemed like Brad had the much better strategy than Darrell, but on the flip side Janelle seemed to have a better strategy than Jodi and Darrelle managed not to keep hitting Janelle on the head with cinderblocks.

 

The Blacklist:  I do not think I really needed to see what happened to Ressler between the seasons, but after watching this episode… I still think I did not need to see that.