Around the Tubes: July 9, 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 Victoria's Secret: Angels and Demons, James Bay, Noah Kahan, John Legend. POV, and NYC Point Gods.

-  Check out the NEW trailer for Hulu Original Docuseries "Victoria's Secret: Angels and Demons," directed by Matt Tyrnauer.  Coming to Hulu Thursday, July 14.  Investigated with journalistic rigor by director Matt Tyrnauer, this documentary tells the searing and provocative story of the Victoria’s Secret brand and its longtime CEO, the larger-than-life, enigmatic billionaire Les Wexner. The underworld of fashion, the billionaire class, and Jeffrey Epstein are all revealed to be inextricably intertwined with the fall of this legendary brand in "Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons." 

- Three-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated and BRIT Award-winning multi-platinum singer, songwriter, and guitarist James Bay presents his highly anticipated third full-length album, Leap, out now via Mercury/Republic Records.  On the release of the album Bay said: ”I am so happy Leap is finally out. It’s been a weird and winding road to get here over the past few years (as it has been for everyone), but all things considered it’s been a wonderful journey making this music. I got the opportunity to write more songs and was able to fully realize what this album was supposed to be. I can’t wait to take these songs around the world.”  The record includes the heartfelt and hypnotic new single “Save Your Love,” which highlights his dynamic vocals and was produced by FINNEAS.

- Singer and songwriter Noah Kahan is back with his new honest and heartfelt single “Stick Season” out now via Mercury Records/Republic Records—listen HERE. For Noah, the song represents his homecoming, a lyrical homage to painful but necessary transitions brought to life by the imagery of the change of seasons in his home state of Vermont.  On the song, Noah says, “I wrote ‘Stick Season’ without knowing it would become, in my opinion, the most important song of my career. It allowed me to finally cross over into the style of songwriting that I have loved my entire life, and the second I finished writing it, I felt a level of comfort and honesty that I had never previously felt since I began my journey in music. Being able to tell a story, and being able to relate back to my home in New England in such an honest way, made me believe in myself again.”

- Multi-platinum, 12-time GRAMMY Award-winner John Legend today debuted the video for “Honey” featuring Muni Long, the second single from his forthcoming album.  The Christian Breslauer-directed visual is set in the aftermath of the retro house party featured in the video for “Dope” (the lead single from the upcoming LP).  We find Legend passed out on the living room floor dreaming about the dance party that took place the night before.  After a (CGI) bee sting wakes him up, honeycomb walls lure him to a secret room where he finds Muni in a vintage bathtub full of sweet glittery golden honey.  The warm morning backlight glows off her skin as she uses her beauty to pull him closer.  Watch the steamy scene unfold in the official video HERE.  Listen to the song HERE.  Upon the song’s release, Billboard said, “John Legend and Muni Long officially have a contender for song of the summer,” while Rolling Stone called the track “seductive” and “sultry.”  “Honey” was produced by Ryan Tedder, Steven Franks, Lindgren and Tommy Brown, with Legend and Long serving as co-writers along with Melanie Joy Fontana, HARV, Gregory Heinn, Lindgren, Franks, Tedder and Brown. While Long and Legend previously worked together as songwriters, “Honey” is their first collaboration as recording artists.

- The 35th anniversary season of POV, America’s longest running documentary series, opens with the heart rendering observational film Wuhan Wuhan, about the first wave of COVID-19, in the city where the mysterious virus was first discovered.  Directed by Yung Chang (Up the Yangtze, This is Not a Movie), and produced by Diane Quon (Minding the Gap), Donna Gigliotti (Hidden Figures, Shakespeare in Love), and Peter Luo (Crazy Rich Asians, Marshall), the documentary goes beyond the statistics and salacious headlines to provide a human experience to the early months of the pandemic through the stories of frontline medical workers, patients, and ordinary citizens.  Wuhan Wuhan makes its national broadcast and streaming premiere on PBS television series POV, Monday, July 11, 2022 at 10pmET/9C and is available to stream free through August 11, 2022 at pbs.org, and the PBS Video app. In addition to standard closed captioning, POV, in partnership with audio description service DiCapta, provides real time audio interpretations for audiences with sensory disabilities.

- POV Shorts, the best and boldest independent non-fiction short films curated by POV (America's longest-running documentary series), announced today the acquisition of six new short documentary films: Chilly and Milly, Coming Home, Freedom Swimmer, My Duduś and You Can't Stop Spirit that premiered at the 2022 Palm Springs International ShortFest, and Shut Up and Paint an official selection of the 2022 Tribeca Festival.  The six films will air on PBS stations, and stream on POV.org, as part of the upcoming fifth season of POV Shorts. The full season lineup will be announced at a later date.

- SHOWTIME Sports Documentary Films has released today the official trailer and poster art for its upcoming documentary NYC POINT GODS, an in-depth look at the legendary point guards of New York City who honed their craft and developed their legendary showmanship in the 1980s and ’90s. NYC POINT GODS  will be available across the network’s streaming and on demand platforms for all SHOWTIME subscribers on Friday, July 29 and will premiere on SHOWTIME at 9 p.m. ET/PT.  To watch and share the trailer, go to: https://s.sho.com/3NNo7xT. 

57 Channels and Only This Is On: July 3, 2022

 

Westworld:  So is Neo-Delores (am not going to bother learning her new name) some sort of descendant of whoever the robot was modeled after (Ford’s mother I think).  Is this taking place in robot heaven, where Teddy’s conscience went off to?  But then, how did Neo-Delores get there?  Season three was pretty bad, yet, I did not have the premiere.  But this season is early.

 

The Man Who Fell to Earth:   Oh wow, the FBI dude got shot by his subordinate.  I did not see that coming.  And I am not sure exactly why she did it.  But I kind of checked out early in the episode because way too much torture for me.  But is he dead-dead?  When you shoot someone, then walk up to do another shot up close is usually to make sure their dead.  But I guess the question, will some alien technology bring him back.  Speaking of murder, also was not expecting the daughter to jut push her father off the side of the cliff.  I found the horse murder to be a bit sympathetic because it was sick, but then she just goes full psychopath,  But I guess the old alien is not in Cambodia.

 

Irma Vep:  It was not until I listen to a podcast that I realized that Irma is not an actual vampire, just a thief pretending to be one.  I feel so stupid, but then again, I zone out whenever the director is on screen.

 

In the Dark:  Are the cops stupid, they were clearly talking about drugs on the tape, yet they somehow did not think to at the very least drug test the nerd.

 

Only Murders in the Building:  I kept on seeing people talking about Easter Eggs in the title sequence and even after knowing they were there, I never noticed one until the second episode of the second season when I noticed Bunny walking her bird instead of the dog she usually walks a dog.  Ha, good one title sequence creators.  As for the episodes themselves, the new episodes were dominated by stunt casting, which mostly worked in season one.

 

But, oof, off to a bad start so far this year (well aside from Shirley McLaine trying to cut the cheese, I cannot believe that is something I just wrote).  I do not understand what Amy Schumer is trying to do.  Usually celebrities play a meaner version of themselves, like Sting hating dogs and telling Tim Kono to kill himself, but she seems to being playing much nicer than her public persona.  Maybe she just playing nice to get Oliver to sign over the rights of the podcast and there will be a heel turn eventually.  Then Cara Delavigne just cannot act (and that kiss was very awkward).  Surprisingly, Michael Rappaport, who I will never forgive for ruining his season of Justified, was the least annoying.  But I did love how Mabel spent most of her interrogation mocking him.

 

As for the mystery of who killed Bunny, nothing happened that swayed me from my way too early prediction last season that Tina Fey did it to give her true crime podcast some content.  Though Cara Delavigne does seem shady but I feel like she is the Teddy Dimas of the season, someone who did something illegal, but not necessarily murder.  She probably is the forger.

 

Motherland: Fort Salem:  In the aftershow, they mention how the actor playing Raelle got in a car accident.  So that explains why she randomly just disappeared.  I guess she may just be in bed for a couple episode.  I did recognize her mom, but have little clue who that bad dude was.

 

The Challenge: All Stars: Kaylah definitely cheated and the shoe really needs to put up curtains in the puzzles because even when they put up blinders, someone like Kaylah is going to blatantly cheat.  But I feel like I jinxed Kellyanne by rooting for her as she keeps bombing, even in the paddle boarding which dominated earlier in the season.  But back to back wins may actually get her back in the hunt.

 

Ms. Marvel:  Were we really supposed to care for the new mentor who just showed up, gave a huge exposition dumb right before he (presumably) died?  But I did get a laugh when his apprentice said, “I always wanted to say that.”

 

The Old Man:  The first two episodes were very strong, but Amy Brenneman is really dragging the show down.  Maybe he should have not just killed her in her dream.  I do not even understand that whole divorce threat and how that would stop him from killing her.