Around the Tubes: August 20, 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 Ramy, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Woman in the Wall, Alan Cumming, Westworld, The Band, Tug of Words, POV, Yellowjackets, The Chi, and City on a Hill.

- Ramy Youssef announced that season three of the Emmy®-nominated and Peabody Award-winning series “Ramy,” will return to Hulu on Friday, September 30^th with all ten episodes. See here for the teaser art he revealed!  Golden Globe® Award-winning actor Ramy Youssef returns to Hulu for his critically-acclaimed performance in the Hulu Original comedy series “Ramy.” The series follows first-generation, Egyptian-American Ramy Hassan (Youssef) and his family as they navigate spirituality in their politically-divided New Jersey neighborhood. “Ramy” continues to bring a new perspective to the screen as it explores the challenges of what it’s like to be caught between a religious community who believes life is a moral test, and a millennial generation that doubts an afterlife even exists. In the third season, his family is forced to confront having lived a life dedicated to worldly concerns — and in some cases, lies — while Ramy all but abandons his spiritual journey, instead dedicating himself to him and his uncle's diamond business.  

- HBO’s genre-bending drama series that captivated audiences all around the world travels to your homes as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment releases The Time Traveler’s Wife: The Complete Series on DVD October 18, 2022. Follow all 6, one-hour episodes from the series, plus almost 30 minutes of bonus content that goes behind the scenes of the series for the ultimate fan! The Time Traveler’s Wife: The Complete Series is priced to own at $19.99 SRP for the DVD ($24.99 in Canada). The series is also available to own on Digital via purchase from digital retailers and to stream on HBO Max.  The Time Traveler’s Wife: The Complete Series follows the intricate and magical love story between Clare and Henry, and a marriage with a problem...time travel.

- SHOWTIME and The BBC announced today the new six-episode gothic thriller THE WOMAN IN THE WALL, led by BAFTA^® Award winner Ruth Wilson (THE AFFAIR, Luther) and co-starring Daryl McCormick (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Peaky Blinders). Produced by Motive Pictures (an Endeavor Content backed company), Wilson will also executive produce with series creator BAFTA Award-nominated Joe Murtagh (Calm With Horses) and BAFTA Award-nominee Harry Wootliff (True Things, Only You), who will direct multiple episodes. Rachna Suri (Half Bad) joins as second block director. This new drama, which will air on SHOWTIME in the U.S., BBC One and iPlayer in the UK, and be distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution in all other territories, will examine the legacy of one of Ireland’s most shocking scandals – the inhumane institutions known as “The Magdalene Laundries.” The announcement was made today by Jana Winograde and Gary Levine, Presidents of Entertainment at Showtime Networks Inc. and Ben Irving, Acting Director of BBC Drama.  Lorna Brady (Wilson) is a woman from the small fictional town of Kilkinure, who wakes one morning to find a corpse in her house. Chillingly, Lorna has no idea who the dead woman is or if she herself might be responsible for the apparent murder…That’s because Lorna has long suffered from extreme bouts of sleepwalking, understood to have manifested around the time she was ripped from her life at the age of 15 and incarcerated in The Kilkinure Convent. The Convent was home to one of Ireland’s infamous Magdalene Laundries, a place where women were taken when they fell afoul of the social mores of their times – from those accused of committing adultery to teenage pregnancies. When it finally closed its doors, a score of survivors were left suffering in its wake.  Very few women were able to go on and lead relatively normal lives, others, such as Lorna, were even less fortunate in their fate. One thing all survivors had in common, is that none of them would ever forget.

- Emmy^® nominee and Tony winner Alan Cumming (The Good Wife, Cabaret) will debut his first SHOWTIME comedy special, CLUB CUMMING PRESENTS A QUEER COMEDY EXTRAVAGANZA, with a premiere on Friday, September 2 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Cumming hosts this cabaret-style gathering featuring seven up-and-coming queer comedians that represent not only the diversity of the queer spectrum, but also of comedy styling – from stand-up to characters to musical performances. The 75-minute special features Joe Castle Baker, Julia Shiplett, duo Zach Teague & Drew Lausch, Nori Reed, Pat Regan, and Larry Owens.

- WaterTower Music is thrilled to announce that Emmy Award- Winning, Grammy® Award - nominated composer Ramin Djawadi’s (Game of Thrones, Westworld, Iron Man and the forthcoming House of the Dragon) Westworld: Season 4 (Soundtrack from the HBO® Series) has just been released and is now available to stream and download at all digital retailers. As has been Djawadi’s thematic approach on each of his Westworld soundtracks from HBO’s Emmy-winning drama series, the 34-track album features the lauded composer’s original music along with unique versions of well-known songs which were originally performed by Radiohead, Billie Eilish, Frank Ocean, Metallica, Lana Del Rey, Nine Inch Nails, and Lou Reed – all of which were heard throughout Westworld: Season 4. 

- Craft Recordings proudly announces a definitive, bonus-filled edition of Vince Guaraldi’s timeless score from the beloved, 1965 animated PEANUTS® special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, from Charles Schulz and Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez. While the album has remained a holiday staple for nearly 60 years (not to mention the best-selling jazz album of all time, alongside Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, after earning 5x platinum certification by the RIAA in May), this latest edition showcases Guaraldi’s creative process like never before, thanks to hours of newly unearthed session tapes from Fantasy Records’ vaults. Now, fans can experience cues like “Christmas Time Is Here,” “O Tannenbaum,” and “Skating” as they take shape in the studio through dozens of previously unreleased alternate tracks.  In addition, the original 11-track album has been upgraded with a new stereo mix from the original two- and three-track sources by the GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer, Paul Blakemore. Both the new mix and original mix can be found along with hours of unreleased material on the Super Deluxe Edition (available as a 4-CD/1-Blu-ray Audio collection box set or as an 80-track digital release). The new stereo mix will also be available alongside a selection of thirteen studio outtakes on a Deluxe Edition 2-LP or CD. All formats featuring the new stereo mix will release on October 14^th. Fans can preview this stunning new mix with the advance single “Christmas Time Is Here (Instrumental),” which is available to stream/download today.

- In celebration of the 50^th anniversary of The Band’s seminal live album, Rock Of Ages, a series of never-before-seen photos taken by celebrated and influential photographer, Ernst Haas, of the legendary four-night stand at the Academy of Music in New York City during the final week of 1971, have been made available to view for the first time. The beautifully shot color photos, from one of the pioneers of color photography, vividly capture the group of Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, and Robbie Robertson in their prime on New Year’s Eve, 1971, joined by special guest Bob Dylan, who helped usher in the new year by performing with his longtime friends who once backed him as The Hawks when he went “electric” in 1965. Several of Haas’ photos were included in the Rock Of Ages album, released fifty years ago this week on August 15^th, 1972, and additional shots were featured in the 2013 release, Live At The Academy Of Music 1971, an expansive box set that added a soundboard recording of the entire New Year’s Eve performance to newly mixed versions of the Rock Of Ages tracks. View the previously unreleased photos exclusively at UDiscover Music here: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/the-band-bob-dylan-ernst-haas-1971-feature

- Game Show Network, the leader in game shows and competitive entertainment, has announced Emmy® award-winning television host Samantha Harris as host of its quick-moving wordplay game show, TUG OF WORDS. The second season of the half-hour original series is anticipated to premiere fall 2022.  From the producing team behind “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” TUG OF WORDS is a fast-paced game where two teams compete to answer word clue questions correctly and pull the flag on the “tug of war rope” to their side. In round one, each answer involves changing a single letter in the word that appears on the board. For example, with ‘TUG’ on the board, the answer to the clue ‘a label inside a garment’ is ‘TAG,’ and with ‘TAG’ then on the board, the answer to the clue ‘hopefully the upstairs neighbors aren’t learning this dance’ is ‘TAP.’ With each round, an additional letter is added creating four and five letter words to solve. The team with the flag on their side after three rounds wins the game, qualifying them for the bonus round where they have opportunity to compete for $10,000.

- POV, America’s longest running documentary series, currently celebrating its 35th anniversary season, will present Faya Dayi in its national broadcast premiere on Monday, August 29, 2022 (check local listings).  The film, directed, produced and filmed by Jessica Beshir, is a hypnotic immersion in the world of Harar, Ethiopia, a place where one commodity – khat, a euphoria-inducing plant – holds sway over the rituals and rhythms of everyday life. Faya Dayi is available to stream free until September 29, 2022 at pbs.org, and the PBS Video app. In addition to standard closed captioning for the film, POV, in partnership with audio description service DiCapta, provides real time audio interpretations for audiences with sensory disabilities.

- SHOWTIME announced that Simone Kessell (Obi-Wan Kenobi) is joining the highly anticipated second season of YELLOWJACKETS as Adult Lottie Matthews. In addition, Courtney Eaton (Mad Max: Fury Road), who plays the teen version of Lottie, has been upped to series regular in season two. She joins recently announced Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under, Servant), who will play the adult version of Van. YELLOWJACKETS is nominated for seven Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actress for Melanie Lynskey and Outstanding Supporting Actress for Christina Ricci. YELLOWJACKETS was also nominated for two writing Emmys and earned additional noms for Directing and Casting. Season one averaged over 5 million weekly viewers across platforms and was the second-most streamed series in SHOWTIME history. Produced for SHOWTIME by studio Entertainment One (eOne), the series will go into production later this month in Vancouver.

- SHOWTIME announced that Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) is joining the highly anticipated second season of YELLOWJACKETS in a season long guest arc. Wood will play Walter, a dedicated Citizen Detective who will challenge Misty in ways she won’t see coming. 

- SHOWTIME has announced that Donald Sumpter (Game of Thrones), Brendan Patricks (Downton Abbey), Pippa Bennett-Warner (Gangs of London), Mark Quartley (Lucky Man), Jonathan Livingstone (Peacock), Charlotte Louise Arrowsmith (This is Going to Hurt), and Kelly Wenham (Merlin) have joined the cast of ENTITLED, starring and executive produced by Brett Gelman (Fleabag, Stranger Things). Co-produced by SHOWTIME and Channel 4 in the UK, in association with All3Media International, filming began this week on the eight episode comedy series in Manchester, England. ENTITLED is created and executive produced by Matt Morgan (Mister Winner, The Mimic). Harry Williams, Jack Williams and Sarah Hammond of Two Brothers Pictures, the producers of the Emmy^® winning Fleabag and International Emmy nominee BACK TO LIFE, also executive produce. Tim Kirkby (The Pentaverate, Don’t Forget the Driver, Veep) will direct season one and executive produce as well.

- SHOWTIME announced that the hit drama series THE CHI (what was also recently renewed for season six) and CITY ON A HILL will resume Friday, August 26 after taking a one-week preemption this weekend.

 

The upcoming schedule will roll out as follows:

 

Sunday, August 21 at 8 p.m. ET/PT

Jackass Forever

 

THE CHI

Episode 509

Friday, August 26 (streaming/on demand)
Sunday, August 28 at 9 p.m. (on air)

 

Episode 510 (season finale)

Friday, September 2 (streaming/on demand)

Sunday, September 4 at 9 p.m. (on air)

 

CITY ON A HILL

Episode 304

Friday, August 26 (streaming/on demand)
Sunday, August 28 at 10 p.m. (on air)

 

Episode 305

Friday, September 2 (streaming/on demand)

Sunday, September 4 at 10 p.m. (on air)

57 Channels and Only This Is On: August 14, 2022

 

Westworld:  I actually liked this season and they had to go and ruin it by just killing off three of the four major characters within minutes of each other.  Yeah, they told us robots who are shot in their pearl are dead-dead, but we were also told Delores and Teddy were dead-dead but two people who definitely look like them showed up this season so I am sure we will see Maeve, Bernard, and Charlotte very soon.

 

The Chi:  I did not realize the guy who shot Gemma was the mentee who tried to rob Emmitt a couple episode back.  There are just too many characters to keep track on this show.

 

City on a Hill:  On one hand, I am surprised that they killed Ernie Hudson so quickly.  But on the other hand, they really could not have Decoursey spend that much time away from his job.  Speaking of his job, is he going to start investigating one of the ongoing story lines like the construction accident, the cop shooting, or even possibly investigate the guy Jackie is employed by (which would be the most interesting as it will be who side Jackie falls on) or will we be juggling a four case?

 

Flatbush Misdemeanors:  How dumb is that supervisor who did not realize there was something that was not lube in that bottle?

 

In the Dark:  Well, that had to be one of the worst bottle episode in the history of television.  How about not sticking two very unlikeable characters alone in a room together?  And the beeping toy was so stupid. And why is the kingpin on the hunt for the blind chixk and Darnell?  Does he not have at least one their numbers somewhere?

 

Only Murders in the Building:  Oh wow, after the false reveal of Marv, I thought Glitter Guy would slip through our grasps one more time. But now that we know he is Det. Kreps, that makes me think about the first season in a whole new light. We know that Tim Kono's tox screen was not done after his murder, I thought it was just police incompetency, but with Kreps involved, that seems more deliberate now.

But just what are Kreps' intentions? Texting Charles and Olivier makes it look like his is a good guy, but then going after Lucy with a knife is very nefarious. But I wonder if he was breaking into Charles' apartment to go after Lucy or was it for something else and just went after her after he realized she was there?

So we finally know who Glitter Guy is, now the question is, who killed Bunny? Who was the guy in the passageway with Lucy? Who met with Bunny at the diner? Who stole her painting? Det. Kreps may be the answer to one or more of those questions (he most likely is passageway guy) but I doubt he is the answer to all of them.

One more question, why have they spent multiple scenes of Marv talking about his daughter? I saw a theory that Alice is really his daughter and the more Marv talks about his daughter, the more I think it has to be someone. Poppy is the only other realistic option I can think of.

 

The Challenge: USA:  There is always that part of the season of this show where someone gets a lot of screen time and I have to ask myself, have they been there this whole time.  That was David this week who wrnt from I forgot he was on the show to getting every confessional.  Which meant he was either going to win the challenge or get eliminated.   But I will never understand the people who go on this show even though they are scared of heights, or water, or cannot swim.

 

Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin:  Well, that Mouse storyline go weird quick.  Though I am still not sure why she is posing as a kidnap victim.  Even more confusing is just where did her father go?  Seems like he would have a good case for paternity, even if they did not go through proper channels.  So Angela was raped.  So is A the product of that (my, it is Karen theory took another big hit this week so I do need a new theory)?  And we learned this week that Imogen’s baby is the byproduct of rape (if that was a secret, what has she been telling people this whole time) by an unknown assailant, add that to Tabby being raped by an unknown assailant, now I have to ask, did A rape them both in some sick revenge fantasy because he thinks their moms were somehow involved with Angela’s rape?  That would be messed up.

 

The Resort:  It crossed my mind this week, could Chidi and Ted Mosby’s baby mama somehow be the two kids that went missing somehow.