Around the Tubes: April 2, 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 Only Murders in the Building, Candy, Cypress Hill: Insane in the Brain, The Valet, Florence + The Machine, Kae Tempest, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The TV Showrunner’s Roadmap: Creating Great Television in an On Demand World.

- Check out the first look at season two of Hulu's acclaimed comedy series, "Only Murders in the Building." The show's first teaser will air tonight during the 94th Oscars® and shows a sneak peek at Cara Delevingne and Oscars® co-host Amy Schumer in the new season. "Only Murders in the Building" returns on Tuesday, June 28th.

- Check out the latest teaser for "Candy" starring Jessica Biel and Melanie Lynskey airing tonight during the 94th Oscars® on ABC. "Candy" premieres on Hulu Monday, May 9 and will stream new episodes nightly until the finale on Friday, May 13.

-  SHOWTIME has released the official trailer for CYPRESS HILL: INSANE IN THE BRAIN, which will premiere Wednesday, April 20 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. As part of the network’s HIP HOP 50 banner, the documentary chronicles the legendary L.A. rap group and their decades-long career and influence.  Told through the intimate lens of photographer and director Estevan Oriol (LA Originals), CYPRESS HILL: INSANE IN THE BRAIN is a smoke-filled journey across the lives and careers of the groundbreaking, genre-defying Hip Hop group, Cypress Hill. Their unique sound, influenced by their Latin roots and West Coast upbringing, was built on a movement rooted in true authenticity: From cultivating the flower, to smoking it, to rapping about it, their influence is forever burned into the musical landscape of Hip Hop as they continue to stay relevant after 30 years. Using a treasure trove of never-before-seen archival footage captured by Oriol himself, as well as images of band members B Real, DJ Muggs, Sen Dog and Eric “Bobo” Correa, CYPRESS HILL: INSANE IN THE BRAIN tells the story of a brotherhood that has withstood the test of time to create a truly original, everlasting legacy.

- The Hulu Original Film "The Valet," starring Eugenio Derbez ("CODA") and Samara Weaving ("Nine Perfect Strangers"), premieres on Hulu and across Disney streaming services globally on Friday, May 20th. Check out the date announcement from @Ederbez HERE and @Hulu HERE!   SYNOPSIS: In “The Valet,” world famous movie star, Olivia (Samara Weaving) faces a PR disaster when a paparazzi snaps a photo of her with her married lover, Vincent (Max Greenfield). The hard-working valet Antonio (Eugenio Derbez) accidentally appears in the same photo and is enlisted to pose as Olivia’s new boyfriend as a cover up. This ruse with Olivia thrusts Antonio into the spotlight and unexpected chaos. In this fish out of water romantic comedy, two worlds and cultures collide as both Olivia and Antonio start to see themselves more clearly than ever before. “The Valet,” directed by Richard Wong and written by Rob Greenberg and Bob Fisher, is the English-language remake of the hit French film.

- Glass Animals Dave Bayley teamed up with Florence + The Machine to remix her recent single “My Love.” The original, co-produced by Bayley, is taken from Florence’s forthcoming fifth LP Dance Fever, out May 13th that was produced by Florence, Jack Antonoff and Dave Bayley. Listen to “My Love” Remix by Dave Bayley of Glass Animals HERE.

- British spoken word artist, rapper, poet, novelist, and playwright Kae Tempest reveals a new song today entitled “I Saw Light” with Grian Chatten—listen HERE. The track is the final to be released ahead of their highly anticipated fourth album The Line Is A Curve out April 8^th via American Recordings/Republic Records. It is the fourth album from the Lewisham-based artist and has been produced by long term collaborator Dan Carey, alongside executive production by Rick Rubin, and features additional collaborations with Kevin Abstract, Lianne La Havas, ássia, and Confucius MC. The record also follows the critically acclaimed play Paradise, which premiered at the National Theatre in London in 2021.

- Consequence (https://consequence.net/), the largest independently owned digital pop culture publication, today launches its new digital cover stories series. The first edition, available Friday, April 1, features iconic rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers.  In the exclusive profile, Red Hot Chili Peppers members Anthony Kiedis and Flea discuss the return of guitarist John Frusciante, the making of their 12th studio album Unlimited Love, and tease their upcoming stadium tour. "This [album] is the story of how we got here," Kiedis says. "Survival and just being a part of whatever moment. We were alive in the '70s, the '80s, the '90s, the 2000s ... I think anything is possible for us." Read the full story here.

- Industry veteran Neil Landau has released his latest book The TV Showrunner’s Roadmap: Creating Great Television in an On Demand World out today with Focal Press. This all-new edition of his previously released best-selling guide The TV Showrunner's Roadmap provides readers with the tools for creating, writing, pitching, selling, and eventually running their own hit streaming series. The TV Showrunner’s Roadmap is available for purchase now here.  Combining his 30+ years as a working screenwriter and professor, Landau expertly unpacks essential insights to the creation of a successful show, and takes readers behind the scenes with exclusive, enlightening interviews with showrunners from some of TV's most lauded series, including Fargo, Better Call Saul, Watchmen, Insecure, Barry, Succession, Ozark, Schitt's Creek, Euphoria, PEN15, global hit series Casa de Papel (Money Heist), My Brilliant Friend, Le Bureau, Unorthodox, and many more. Each chapter is a navigation point on the art and craft of writing for television -- with becoming a showrunner as the ultimate destination.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: March 27, 2022

 

 Killing Eve:   So they went through all that trouble to set up the crazy French assassin just to let her out of prison after one scene with little issue?  Why bother arresting her at all except for a cheap cliffhanger?

 

The Walking Dead:  The writers really got too cute with the nonlinear storytelling.  They should have shown the Aaron/priest scene first because then we knew what was going to happen to the red shirt on the horse.  And I am confused by the timeline.  So red shirt runs into Negann, gets a horse, goes back to get shot, then goes to Hilltop?  Huh?  Feels like something got messed up.  And this is where Negan went?  Are we really to believe this super religious dude who have a wall of evil doer’s skulls was going to is going to let Negan live there?

 

Billions:  What I really disliked about the whole Olympics plot was that its conclusion was obvious, that Prince was not going to be able to move the games to New York since that would deviate from reality too far.  I thought Prince’s attempt to remove Chuck was just as fruitless because there is no show without in a power position.  Well, despite the rousing applause, Chuck still got ousted.  So is Chuck going to go the way of Bobby and be written off the show?  Is Chuck going to be a puppet master to his replacement?  I guess he could always run for governor.  His first run did not go well.

 

Super Pumped: The Fight for Uber:  I am surprised they did not make a bigger deal of Bill getting locked out of Uber.  And while I knew Uma Thurman as Arianna Huffington was coming, I did not know she had a seat on the board at Uber.  But all the boy’s club antics of the show was kind of gross considering the accusation of Brian Koppleman’s other Showtime show Billions.

 

Snowpiercer:  So Melanie somehow had enough juice in her suit to walk to another train that apparently can pierce snow too despite being much smaller, then survived by going in and out of stasis.  Yet this is more believable than her turning on her daughter to rat out Layton’s plan to go to the Horn of Africa.  But I guess with Wilford locked up, there needs to be a new antagonist.

 

The Endgame:  The agents were once again stupid enough to think they got to the bomb in time.  If they knew the tech guy was in on it with the evil chick, they really should have known, that it was an act the caught the bomber in time.

 

Survivor:  Yet another episode where the editors spoil things, at least it was inadvertent this time.  But of course the Tribe that got zero scree time prior to the challenge was not going to go to Tribal.  But really bizarre that in the opening scene of the season they show us Tori finding the dumb phrase advantage yet she is going to be the last on the show to find it. 

 

But, wow, so much bad game play this week.  How do you explicitly tell someone you cannot risk losing your vote and then assume the other people will not risk their vote so you can get an Extra Vote?  Then what exactly happened with the vote?  Did Hai change his last minute from the guys voting for the guy and the girls voting for the girl?  It did not seem like he changed, so did they really go to Tribal without the votes correctly working out for them?  But Hai did the one smart thing and threaten to go the rocks.  Had he switched (and why would he if Daniel was adamant about not going to rocks as the only other vote) then he is clearly on the bottom of a five member Tribe and would be gone at next Tribal.  Not changing mean best case scenario, Daniel switches, his closes ally is safe, and Daniel is the new goat of the Tribe.  Worst case scenario, go to rocks with a one in four change of going home,   three and four chance of someone other than you or your only ally going home.  Really the only thing Daniel said or did this week was that he is not going to win.  I do not think anyone on this Tribe has a chance at this point.

 

The Dropout:  My biggest problem with shows about real life people is that I spend way too much time searching if such dumb, inconsequential events really happened.  Like did Tyler Shultz really drop out of college his senior year to go tour with Dispatch?  That was the most excited I have ever seen anyone talk about Dispatch before.

 

Big Sky:  Yeah, I was stupid for assuming multiple died last episode, especially since T-Lock was the only one we got confirmation of.  It turned out Ronald was the only one else who actually died yet.  But much like his brother, Wolf survived a bullet only to be killed by hand latter.  I wonder if there is a triplet out there.  Oh, and Scarlette somehow escaped after being stabbed in the neck.  Umm, okay.  Then it was bizarre that Ren mock the bomber for claiming he had information because everyone says that before dying, but then seemingly believed him after telling her that Stone was cop.

 

The Blacklist:  When the show is doing hot killer sex robot storylines, it is really time to end the show.  But I missed why Red wanted to investigate it when the guy with the ruby neckless was poisoned by his wife.