Around the Tubes: May 28, 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 The Gilded Age, The Beach Boys, Lord Huron, Amy Winehouse, Florence + the Machine, Vera Blue, The Happy Fits, Elizabeth: A Portrait in Part(s), and I Love That for You.

- Get ready to embark on a compelling journey through life in New York in the late 1800s, as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment brings The Gilded Age: The Complete First Season to DVD on July 26, 2022. Indulge in all 9 episodes from the first season of the historical drama that won fans over with its charming cast and compelling storylines with over two hours of bonus content including an all-new featurette. The Gilded Age: The Complete First Season is available to own on DVD for $24.98 SRP ($29.99 in Canada) and will also be available to own on Digital via purchase from all major digital retailers. The series is now available exclusively for streaming on HBO Max.  From Emmy^® and Academy Award^® Winning Writer Julian Fellowes (“Downton Abbey”, Best Original Screenplay Gosford Park), and recently renewed for a second season by HBO, The Gilded Age the Complete First Season takes place during a period of immense economic change, of huge fortunes made and lost, and the rise of disparity between old money and new.  A wide-eyed young scion of a conservative family, Marian, embarks on a mission to infiltrate the wealthy neighboring clan of her aunts Agnes van Rhijn and Ada Brook, dominated by ruthless railroad tycoon George Russell and his ambitious wife, Bertha, meeting new people like aspiring writer Peggy Scott, along the way. In this exciting new world that is on the brink of the modern age, will Marian follow the established rules of society, or forge her own path?

- The Beach Boys are sharing the sterling new stereo mix of their classic 1963 tune, “Shut Down,” offering up a blast of fun and sun to help soundtrack Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial kickoff to summer. The new mix is featured on their forthcoming remastered and expanded edition of their career-spanning greatest hits collection, Sounds Of Summer: The Very Best Of The Beach Boys, due June 17 via Capitol Records/UMe. Originally released in 2003, the album soared to No. 16 in the US and stayed on the chart for 104 weeks. Now certified 4x platinum for sales of nearly four and a half million albums, the new edition has been updated in both number of songs and sonics as it expands the original 30-track best of with 50 more of the band’s most beloved songs for a total of 80 tracks that span their earliest hits to deeper fan-favorite cuts. Boasting 26 new mixes, it includes two first-time stereo mixes, plus 24 new-and-improved stereo mixes, which in some cases feature the latest in digital stereo extraction technology, allowing for the team to separate the original mono backing tracks for the first time.  Pre-order Sounds Of Summer: The Very Best Of The Beach Boys and listen to “Shut Down.” https://thebeachboys.lnk.to/SoundsOfSummer

- Lord Huron released Long Lost (Deluxe Edition) as the definitive version of their critically acclaimed fourth full-length album, Long Lost. The band has expanded the tracklisting with two new songs: “Your Other Life” and “Ton Autre Vie.” Listen to Long Lost (Deluxe Edition)—HERE.  The tunes reflect two sides of the same coin. Over a dusky beat and dreamy instrumentation, Lord Huron vocalist and songwriter Ben Schneider performs “Your Other Life” in English, while Sarah Dugas sings over the same sonic backdrop in French for “Ton Autre Vie.”

- UMe, Island Records, and BBC announce the release of Live at Glastonbury 2007 – the iconic performance of Amy Winehouse’s Pyramid Stage set at Glastonbury 2007, coming to vinyl for the very first time on Friday, June 3rd.  Showcasing the inimitable artistry of one of the UK’s most gifted and accomplished singers of all time, this emotionally charged live set will be released as a 2LP on black vinyl, with an exclusive crystal clear edition available HERE. The 2007 performance on the festival’s legendary Pyramid Stage, 15 years ago this summer, was Amy’s second Glastonbury appearance and a performance that saw the world completely fall in love with her music. As well as a second set later that same day on the Jazz World Stage, Amy returned the following year to perform again on the Pyramid stage, cementing herself firmly in the canon of great Glastonbury performances.

- Florence + the Machine’s much lauded new album Dance Fever debuts at #1 on Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums charts, #2 on Top Album Sales and #7 on the Billboard 200—her fourth consecutive album in the top ten. In addition, the album debuts at #1 in the U.K., the band’s fourth LP to reach the top spot.  Last week, Florence Welch shared the deluxe version of Dance Fever featuring a cover of The Stooges’ “Search And Destroy” and acoustic versions of four album tracks—“Cassandra,” “Free,” “Morning Elvis,” and “My Love.” Listen here.

- Fresh from performing at BassInTheGrass Festival, Australian indie pop artist Vera Blue shares her new single “The Curse” today—listen HERE. The power ballad single is reminiscent of her iconic 2017’s “Mended”, with effortlessly climbing vocals, achieving the right balance of intimacy and grandiosity.  While “Mended” is a song about when a powerful love has ended, “The Curse” is what happens when true love can feel like torture. Chronicling the experience of falling in love with a friend and having to reckon what that might mean for the friendship itself, it finds the alt-pop songstress at the height of her powers, writing about a difficult subject matter with grace and ingenuity. “It’s been a long time since I’ve put out a song like this. I think it’s time to show those raw emotions again, in more of a deep, heavy way, with more sadness,” says Vera Blue.

- After wrapping up two wildly successful tours and releasing an irresistible track "Dance Alone,", lively alt/indie-pop trio The Happy Fits release its accompanying official music video today shot at the Cameo Villa, here.  The Happy Fits will also be dancing across the pond to Europe and the UK this fall. In addition to the European & United Kingdom dates, the band will be performing at festivals across the U.S. this summer including Napa's BottleRock Festival and Milwaukee's Summerfest. Find a full list of dates below, with tickets on sale now via thehappyfits.com/tour.

- SHOWTIME has announced that the documentary feature ELIZABETH: A PORTRAIT IN PART(S), directed by Roger Michell (Notting Hill, Venus, The Duke), will air on SHOWTIME this Friday, May 27 at 9 p.m. ET/PT and will be available on streaming and on demand ahead of the monarch’s Platinum Jubilee this June.  The film was a passion project for Michell, the late filmmakerwho finished the film on the day that he passed. With a reputation for making some of the most globally celebrated British films, Michell referred to this project as, “a truly cinematic Mystery Tour up and down the decades; playful, poetic, funny, disobedient, ungovernable, affectionate, inappropriate, mischievous … and in awe.”

-  SHOWTIME and QVC, a world leader in video commerce (“vCommerce”), announced today their official collaboration in support of the SHOWTIME original comedy series I LOVE THAT FOR YOU, currently airing new episodes on streaming and on-demand Fridays and on-air Sunday nights at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT.  The show’s star and co-creator – Emmy^® nominee Vanessa Bayer (Saturday Night Live), who portrays a home-shopping host and avid fan within the fictional series – will co-host a live one-hour multiplatform shopping show today on QVC with QVC host Jane Treacy. The show, titled Vanessa Bayer and Jane Treacy’s Must-Haves, will be broadcast live from QVC studios in West Chester, PA today at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT, and will also be available to stream live and on demand on QVC’s streaming service and on https://www.qvc.com/content/shop-live-tv.html. Additional information can be found at https://www.qvc.com/ilovethatforyou. 

The Most Anticipated Show(s) of 2022-23

 

Every May, I would scroll over the network schedules they produce during the Upfronts and make a list of the new shows coming next fall that I am most excited about.  That list has gotten smaller and smaller and this year the list is just one: Quantum Leap.  I guess unless you really love cop or doctor shows, networks are just not for you anymore.  Law and Order, FBI, and Chicago even have their own nights.  That does not count Grey’s Anatomy or NCIS which has two hour blocks or The Rookie that has two shows on different nights.

 

Of course this is because all the adventurous shows have moved to streaming.  Sitcoms used to be the one thing networks did better than streaming but there are no new sitcoms launching in September, Lopez vs. Lopez will get a late fall premiere.  Only two other sitcom got announced this year.  Not only will no new shows will be on the fall schedule, CBS and ABC both cut an hour of comedy each from their current schedules.  They both very recently had two two hour blocks of sitcoms each week, now CBS is down to two one hour blocks and ABC has one two hour block.  The previously mentioned NBC, who once had the once vaunted Must See TV Thursday comedy block, will launch with no sitcoms on their schedule for the second straight year.

 

So with very few new shows, my fall schedule looks very bare.

 

 Mondays

8:00 – The Neighborhood (CBS)

10:00 – Quantum Leap (NBC)

 

Tuesdays

9:00 – La Brea (NBC)

 

Wesnesday

8:00 – Survivor (CBS)

8:00 – DC’s Stargirl (The CW)

8:30 – The Goldbergs (ABC)

9:00 – Abbott Elementary (ABC)

10:00 - Big Sky (ABC)

 

Thursdays

8:30 – Ghosts (CBS)

 

 Fridays

8:00 – Young Rock (NBC)

 

Saturdays/Sundays

Nothing

 

 

While I am listing schedules, might as well also post my Summer Schedule which is disturbingly filling up.  Summer used to be a time to catch up on things, but there are a lot of originals coming

 

Mondays

9:00 – Ima Vep (HBO, June 6)

9:00 – In the Dark (The CW, June 6)

 

Tuesdays

Pistol (Hulu, May 31)

Only Murders in the Building (Hulu, June 28)

10:00 – Motherland: Fort Salem (Freeform, June 21)

10:00 – What We Do in the Shadows (FX, July 12)

 

Wednesdays

Ms. Marvel (Disney+, June 8)

Reservation Dogs (Hulu, August 3)

She-Hulk:  Attorney at Law (Disney+, August 17)

10:00 – Grown’ish (Freeform, July 10:00)

 

Thursdays

Players (Paramount+, June 16)

Maggie (Hulu, July 7)

Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Prime, September 1)

 

Fridays

Obi-Wan Kenobi (Disney+, May 27)

Loot (Apple TV+, June 24)

 

Sundays

9:00 – Westworld (HBO, June 26)

9:00 – The Chi (Showtime, June 26)

9:00 – House of the Dragon (HBO, August 21)

10:00 – City on a Hill (Showtime, July 10)

11:00 - Flatbush Misdemeanors (Showtime, June 19)

 

57 Channels and Only This Is On: May 22, 2022

 

The Time Traveler’s Wife:  I remember watching the movie based on the same book, but I do not remember the movie being as bad as the show is.  I do remember the time traveler seeing his wife as a child, but I do not remember those scenes being that creepy.  HBO is known for its quality and it is quite surprising just how much this feels like a lifetime show.

 

Fear the Walking Dead:  So their big plan is to lead the zombies into the underground shelter and escape the same way Alicia did even though Alicia got trapped and bite going out that way.   Does no one want to take five seconds to realize why that was a bad idea?  Wes got caught in the bunker with all the zombies, yet shows up in the trailer for next week.  Sigh.

 

The First Lady:  Ha, Eleanor has a women reporter only press conference.  I honestly would not have guessed there were that many female reporters that long ago.  I have found the Michelle segments to be the least interesting, but snarky and fun Michele does make her segments much more entertaining.

 

The Man Who Fell to Earth:  I really did not need to see a cow being birthed.  The bee lady may have been more disturbing.  But we finally got all of the main player in the same place at the same time.  I did not see the Justin twist where she brutally killed a man, and the father of her child. 

 

I Love That for You:  Who knew you could buy condoms in bulk?  I mean, I did, but I am guessing most other people had no clue.  I am surprised that guy was not in a 90’s cover band considering they made such a deal out of the two loving the decade in the first episode.

 

The Challenge: All Stars: It does look like if you beat someone with multiple stars, you get all of them.  Maybe MJ should not be too mad at Kendall since he now has both of Cyrus’s stars.  Kendal got lucky that not one but two women left before elimination so for the second straight week no women’s elimination.  But no one gets Tina’s stars who was gifted a star from Melina without doing anything.  To make the gender’s equal, do they simply bring back Cynthia or will we get someone new?  Cyrus recently held a premiere party and I spied Laurel and someone we have not seen on television in a very long time: Tara from Northern Trail.

 

Survivor: Poor Omar, Drea just really blew up his game by outing him as the mastermind to his demise.  But will Maryanne follow him after being the mastermind to his demise?  She does have an Idol in her pocket and so does Mike so unless something goes horribly wrong, they are in the final four so they are guaranteed to at least make fire.  Johnathan has to win at five or he has no chance and if not him, Lindsay.  I have to image, which between Mike and Maryanne make it to Final Tribal will win, will be interesting who wins if both are there.  If Johnathan or Lindsey wins Immunity than fire, they might even have a chance.  Romeo is obvious a no vote getter.

 

Though Lindsey made a very fatal flaw in saying she should not play her Idol because it may go back into the game.  While played Idols do go back in play, why would she think an Idol that expires that week would go back into the game?  It would have been very interesting had she played that Idol for Omar.  That would have meant a 2-2 tie between Romeo and Johnathan.  That would mean Maryanne would have been able to cast the deciding vote in the revote assuming everyone else voted the same way.

 

The Flight Attendant: After the first episode, I was convinced Grace was the doppelganger.  After the second episode, it was so obvious that she was the doppelganger I assumed she had to be a red herring.  Then she just kind of disappeared after the third episode until she popped as the doppelganger.  And then killed herself because… um, I am not entirely sure what she rambled on about.  But apparently there is someone out there that was pulling her strings.  I guess it has to be the annoying chick from AA.

 

Under the Banner of Heaven:  Yeah, never trust a dude who wants to marry your teenaged children.  So where did those children go?

 

Made for Love:  Didn’t they say last week if they did not rescue real Hazel, she would disappear soon?  So why is Byron there six months later? 

 

Halo:  I did not realize until I listened to a podcast that John died.  So when Cortana took over she took over for good?  Then Makee is also dead I guess.  Will both show up in the Halo at some point?  And what happened to Soron?  I thought that was him flying the ship to rescue the other Spartans but apparently no one was flying that.  Okay.

 

Big Sky:  Jenny really set Travis free to find the chick Veer killed?  C’mon.  Of course she is dead.  But I am guessing the writers will probably have her sold off to the sex ring syndicate just to tie everything together.  But I guess that means the syndicate and the other Indian drug lords will be sticking around.  And just how did the son kill his father without anyone notice?  Don’t nurses rush in whenever someone flat lines?  But dude just stands there and gloats and then walks out of the hospital.  Such dumb writing.  I bet new sheriff will be owned by the sexy ring syndicate.  He kind of looks like Don-o’s more put together brother.

 

The Blacklist:  Way to spoil the show with the episode title: Marvin Gerard: Conclusion Part 1.  So you spoil that they will get Marvin but also spoil it will not be done this episode because you have to assume Part 2 is coming next week.  So when Red gets him at the airport, obvious he was going to escape.