Winter 2015 Music Preview

Like the past few winters, the marquee names are far and few in between and most are listed in the TBD section but here are the albums coming out in the next couple months that will probably at least be worth a spin on Spotify. Click on the album name to pre-order on Amazon and the artist name to be taken to their iTunes page.

Last Week
Uptown Special - Mark Ronson
Evermotion - Guster
Me EP - RaeLynn
Soundtrack of My Life - Donny Osmond

This Week
What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World - The Decemberists
Tetsuo and Youth - Lupe Fiasco
American Beauty/American Psycho - Fall Out Boy
Fear and Saturday Night - Ryan Bingham
Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance - Belle and Sebastian
For the Taking - Elenowen

January 27
The Phosphorescent Blues - Punch Brothers
Wanted on Voyage - George Ezra
Then Came the Morning - The Lone Bellow
Interlude - Jamie Cullum
Forever Charlie - Charlie Wilson
Sco-Mule - Gov't Mule
Tony Lucca - Tony Lucca

February 3
Shadows In The Night - Bob Dylan
Afraid of Ghosts - Butch Walker
Further Deeper - The Church

February 10
The Last Five Years Soundtrack - Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan
Smoke and Mirrors - Imagine Dragons
Tomorrow Is My Turn - Rhiannon Giddens
Love Stuff - Elle King
True Romance - Estelle
Whatever, My Love - The Juliana Hatfield Three
A Quien Quiera Escuchar - Ricky Martin
Last Dragon -Sisqó

February 24
Archis - Archis
First Kiss - Kid Rock
Just Kids - Mat Kearney
Our Own House - MisterWives

March 3
Chasing Yesterday - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
another eternity - Purity Ring
Strangers to Ourselves - Modest Mouse
The Firewatcher's Daughter - Brandi Carlile
Aureate Gloom - of Montreal

March 10
Rebel Heart - Madonna

March 17
Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield Sing Elliott Smith - Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield

March 24
Toto XIV - Toto
Short Movie - Laura Marling

March 31
Kintsugi - Death Cab for Cutie
Southern Style - Darius Rucker
Carrie and Lowell - Sufjan Stevens
The Day Is My Enemy - The Prodigy

April 7
After it All - Delta Rae
New Glow - Matt and Kim
Froot - Marina and The Diamonds

TBD
No Pier Pressure - Brian Wilson
Radio Silence - James Blake
Bush - Snoop Dogg
Black Is the New Black - Everclear
Adele
Ashley Monroe
Kacey Musgraves
Kanye West
Metallica
TLC (donate to the Kickstarter now)
Van Halen

As always, let me end with the obligatory maybe this will be the quarter that Dr. Dre will finally drop Detox.

The 100 Best Songs of 2014

1. Destination - Nickel Creek

2. Take Me to Church - Hozier

3. Boom Clap - Charli XCX

4. Uptown Funk - Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars

5. XO - Beyoncé

6. Kansas City - The New Basement Tapes

7. Say You Love Me - Jessie Ware

8. Blue Moon - Beck

9. Get Hurt - The Gaslight Anthem

10. Waiting Game - Banks

11. Mother and Father - Broods

12. Gotta Get Away - The Black Keys

13. Dearly Departed - Shakey Graves featuring Esmé Patterson

14. Keep It to Yourself - Kacey Musgraves

15. Understand - The Roots featuring Dice Raw and Greg Porn

16. Fever - The Black Keys

17. Supernova - Ray LaMontagne

18. Air Balloon - Lily Allen

19. If I Could Change Your Mind - Haim

20. Jungle - X Ambassadors and Jamie N Commons

21. Thinking Out Loud - Ed Sheeran

22. Yellow Flicker Beat - Lorde

23. Blank Space - Taylor Swift

24. Bridges - Broods

25. Rollin' and Tumblin' - The Gaslight Anthem

26. Every Breaking Wave - U2

27. Bad Self Portraits - Lake Street Dive

28. Fall In Love - Phantogram

29. Beggin For Thread - Banks

30. I Blame Myself - Sky Ferreira

31. Brill Bruisers - The New Pornographers

32. Budapest - George Ezra

33. Gimme Something Good - Ryan Adams

34. Love Me Harder - Ariana Grande featuring The Weeknd

35. Our Time - Lily Allen

36. My Silver Lining - First aid Kit

37. I Wanna Get Better - Bleachers

38. Magic - Coldplay

39. Left Hand Free - Alt-J

40. Do You - Spoon

41. Right Time - Nikki Lane

42. Rabbit - Lily and Madeleine

43. The Heart - Needtobreathe

44. First Things First - Neon Trees

45. Hurt You - Toni Braxton and Babyface

46. Be Mine - Meiko

47. Hate To See Your Heart Break - Paramore featuring Joy Williams

48. Strong - London Grammar

49. Reflections - Misterwives

50. Ex's and Oh's - Elle King

51. I'm Not the Only One - Sam Smith

52. She Used to Love Me a Lot - Johnny Cash

53. Word Crimes - "Weird Al" Yankovic

54. Ain't It Fun - Paramore

55. Cecilia and the Satellite - Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness

56. Just One of the Guys - Jenny Lewis

57. Red Eyes- The War on Drugs

58. Diamond Eyes - Boyz II Men

59. The Wall - Willie Nelson

60. Kingdom - Common featuring Vince Staple

61. The Heart Wants What It Wants - Selena Gomez

62. This Is What It Feels Like - Banks

63. I Don't Want To Change You - Damien Rice

64. Let's Be Still - The Head and the Heart

65. Happy Idiot - TV on the Radio

66. Another Story - The Head and the Heart

67. Talk (Expletive Deleted), Get Shot - Body Count

68. Morning Song - The Avett Brothers

69. High Road - Mastodon

70. Something from Nothing - Foo Fighters

71. Never Gonna Change - Broods

72. The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone) - U2

73. Foil - "Weird Al" Yankovic

74. Automatic - Miranda Lambert

75. Don't - Ed Sheeran

76. Invisible - U2

77. Brain - Banks

78. L.A.F. - Broods

79. Back in the World - David Gray

80. Lazaretto - Jack White

81. Drowning - Banks

82. Girls - The 1975

83. Ink - Coldplay

84. Drive-in Movies - Ray LaMontagne

85. Riptide - Vance Joy

86. The Chamber - Lenny Kravitz

87. Paris - Magic Man

88. Stay With Me - Sam Smith

89. Light Will Keep Your Heart Beating in the Future - Mike Doughty

90. Tough Love - Jessie Ware

91. Let Her Down Easy - George Michael

92. Figure It Out - Royal Blood

93. I Hope This Whole Thing Didn't Frighten You - The Hold Steady

94. Shut Up and Dance - Walk the Moon

95. Somethin' Bad - Miranda Lambert with Carrie Underwood

96. Cool Kids - Echosmith

97. Wild - Royal Teeth

98. Stranger to My Happiness - Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

99. Girl In a Country Song - Maddie and Tae

100. Waking Light - Beck

Around the Tubes: 1/16/15

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on 12 Monkeys, VH1 + Papa John’s® Super Bowl Blitz: A Concert for the Troops, Purina Pro Plan Incredible Dog Challenge National Finals, Bob Marley, The Slap, King of the Nerds, Saturday Night Live, Wild Australia, as well as Syfy and Showtime news.

- Watch the first 9 minutes of the new Syfy time travel show, 12 Monkeys! Tune-In for the series premiere tonight at 9:00 followed by a new season of Helix.


- VH1 announced its official kickoff to Super Bowl weekend with a special concert salute to the armed forces at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, AZ. This year VH1 and Papa John’s® are teaming up to bring Fall Out Boy and Charli XCX to headline the VH1 + Papa John’s® Super Bowl Blitz: A Concert for the Troops with host Nick Lachey. The concert will kick off live on Friday, January 30th at 9:00 on VH1.

- The Purina Pro Plan Incredible Dog Challenge National Finals will be airing nationally on Saturday, January 17 from 3:00-4:00pm on NBC. This year’s broadcast features Inde, a 2-year-old Belgian Malinois, breaking the Diving Dog World Record with a jump of 33 feet 10 inches!!!

- Bob Marley’s 70th birthday year (2015) will include a variety of releases and events to commemorate the legend, his work and iconic impact. Over the course of the year, his legacy will be remembered by new releases of rare and unreleased material as well as fan favorite deluxe editions of his most memorable work. The first release will be available on February 17. Bob Marley and the Wailers – Easy Skanking in Boston '78, features two historic live shows from Boston’s Music Hall, June 8, 1978. This new and unreleased performance is from the Marley family giving unprecedented access for the first time to their personal material from their private collections and their vaults. The album will be available on blu-ray/cd combo pack as well as dvd/cd and standalone cd versions. Additional newly created animated material will also be a part of this release, marking the first time the family has incorporated this technology into any official Marley releases.


- The Slap premieres February 12 at 8:00, part of the all-new NBC Thursday night.


- As nerds everywhere eagerly await the return of the ultimate geeky competition series King of the Nerds, TBS and Twitch are teaming up for a special sneak preview event to be held at Twitch's San Francisco headquarters on Friday, Jan. 16. King of the Nerds hosts and executive producers Curtis Armstrong and Robert Carradine will be on-hand for the event, which will feature a sneak peek screening of the first episode of season 3 and a chat session with the hosts to take place live on Twitch. Top Twitch influencers Marcus "djWHEAT" Graham and Jon Carnage are set to moderate the event, which will mark Twitch's first-ever live television viewing party. Fans will be able to watch the fun live on Twitch.tv/twitch on today, at 6:00.

- VH1 Classic celebrates the 40th anniversary of the longest-running sketch comedy show in history by bringing fans 40 years of SNL in one place: The SNL Rewind: 2015 – 1975 Mega-Marathon beginning Wednesday, January 28th and wrapping on Sunday, February 15th. Fans can relive the best moments (or binge on all the ones you missed) of SNL history with 19 days of back-to-back SNL episodes in this 433-hour SNL marathon -- the longest ever mounted for a single series on television ever.

- his year, when the weather is too cold to bare, grab the kids and park yourselves in your family room for an amazing once-in-a-lifetime getaway to sunny Wild Australia premiering Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015, at 9:00 on Nat Geo WILD. Warm beaches, gorgeous rain forests and deserts that are surprisingly full of life: this is the Australia you haven’t seen. Nat Geo WILD features a four-hour journey across the continent to reveal not only the beauty of the land, but also the amazing wildlife that makes Australia a heaven for animal lovers.

- Syfy today announced it is developing a one-hour drama series about a futuristic prison society, 51st State, from Fox 21 Television Studios. Oscar nominee Craig Borten (Dallas Buyers Club), who sold the pitch to Syfy, will write the pilot. Peter Chernin (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Katherine Pope (New Girl) and Borten will serve as executive producers. As 51st State unfolds, the United States, confronting a prison population stretched to the limit, purchases Greenland and converts it into a frontier prison colony with male and female convicts incarcerated together. Promised conditional freedom, the inmates are driven to the edge of their humanity when that promise, along with others, is broken. Struggling to seize control and exact revenge, reluctant heroes emerge -- but what exactly are they fighting for?

- Syfy announced yesterday that Jim Uhls (Fight Club, Semper Fi, Jumper) has signed on to adapt Robert Charles Wilson’s Hugo Award novel, Spin, into a six hour miniseries. The widely acclaimed novel centers on a young scientist trying to save humanity from the impending apocalypse of a mysterious, impenetrable cloud that has enveloped the entire Earth, blacking out the stars.

- Syfy and The Asylum yesterday announced that the original Sharknado survivors will return for the most epic shark attack yet! Ian Ziering and Tara Reid will reunite for the global pop culture sensation Sharknado 3, reprising their roles as Fin and April, respectively.

- Here are some headlines coming out of Showtime this week:
Golden Globe® winner KYLE MACLACHLAN RETURNS AS FBI AGENT DALE COOPER ON TWIN PEAKS ON SHOWTIME®
SHOWTIME® GETS “HAPPYISH” ON APRIL 26
HIT SHOWTIME® COMEDY SERIES SHAMELESS GETS SIXTH SEASON PICK-UP
THE FINAL SEASON OF NURSE JACKIE AND THE RETURN OF HIT SERIES PENNY DREADFUL TO DEBUT THIS SPRING ON SHOWTIME®
RAPPER/ACTOR COLSON BAKER (AKA MACHINE GUN KELLY) ROUNDS OUT THE CAST OF THE NEW SHOWTIME® PILOT ROADIES

The 50 Best Music Videos of 2014

1. Girl in a Country Song - Maddie and Tae


2. Just One of the Guys - Jenny Lewis


3. My Song 5 - Haim featuring A$AP Ferg


4. Sweatpants - Childish Gambino featuring Problem


5. Word Crimes - "Weird Al" Yankovic


6. Our Time - Lily Allen

7. I Blame Myself - Sky Ferreira

8. Foil - "Weird Al" Yankovic

9. Blank Space - Taylor Swift

10. URL Badman - Lily Allen

11. Tacky - "Weird Al" Yankovic

12. The Writing's on the Wall - OK Go

13. Water Fountain - tUnE - yArDs

14. Break the Rules - Charli XCX

15. Air Balloon - Lily Allen

16. If I Could Change Your Mind - Haim

17. Yellow Flicka Beat - Lorde

18. Uptown Funk - Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars

19. Shesszus - Lily Allen

20. I Wanna Get Better - Bleachers

21. Magic - Coldplay

22. Talk (Expletive Deleted), Get Shot - Body Count

23. Something Bad - Miranda Lambert featuring Carrie Underwood

24. Ain't It Fun - Paramore

25. Girls Chase Boys - Ingrid Michaelson

26. Fever - The Black Keys

27. Desire - Meg Myers

28. Stay Awhile - She and Him

29. Shake it Off - Taylor Swift

30. Sing - Ed Sheeran

31. Make You Better - The Demberists

32. Let Her Down Easy - George Michael

33. Paris - Magic Man

34. Fancy - Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX

35. Katie Queen of Tennessee - The Apache Relay

36. Mission Statement - “Weird Al" Yankovic

37. The Walker - Fitz and the Tantrums

38. Think Out Loud - Ed Sheeran

39. Understand - The Roots featuring Dice Raw and Greg Porn

40. A Sky Full of Stars - Coldplay

41. Do You - Spoon

42. Habits (Stay High) - Tove Lo

43. Guilty All the Same - Linkin Park featuring Rakim

44. High Ball Stepper - Jack White

45. Don't - Ed Sheeran

46. Back to the Shack - Weezer

47. All Washed Out - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

48. Heart Is a Drum - Beck

49. Headphones - Matt Nathanson featuring LoLo

50. Hayloft - Nickel Creek

The 40 Worst Songs of 2014

1. Anaconda - Nicki Minaj

2. All About That Bass - Meghan Trainor

3. Turn Down For What - DJ Snake and Lil' Jon

4. Loyal - Chris Brown featuring Lil Wayne and Tyga

5. Summer - Calvin Harris

6. BO$$ - Fifth Harmony

7. Black Widow - Iggy Azelea featuring Rita Ora

8. #SELFIE - The Chainsmokers

9. No Mediocre - T.I. featuring Iggy Azalea

10. Booty - Jennifer Lopez featuring Iggy Azalea

11. Ew! - Jimmy Fallon featuring will.i.am

12. Tuesday - I Love Makonnen featuring Drake

13. Really Don't Care - Demi Lovato featuring Cher Lloyd

14. La La La - Naughty Boy featuring Sam Smith

15. Achy Breaky 2 - Buck 22 and Billy Ray Cyrus

16. I Luh Ya Papi - Jennfer Lopez featuring French Montana

17. Birthday - Katy Perry

18. I Don't (Expletive Deleted With You - Big Sean featuring E-40

19. Lips Are Movin - Meghan Trainor

20. Chains - Nick Jonas

21. Don't Panic - French Montana

22. Hideaway - Keiza

23. G.U.Y. - Lady Gaga

24. Hello Kitty - Avril Lavigne

25. Drunk On a Plane - Dierks Bentley

26. Mmm Yeah - Austin Mahone featuring Pitbull

27. Maps - Maroon 5

28. Secrets - Mary Lambert

29. Love Runs Out - One Republic

30. Let It Go - Demi Lovato

31. I Mean It - G-Eazy featuring Remo

32. Sledgehammer - Fifth Harmony

33. This Is How We Roll - Florida Georgia Line featuring Luke Bryan

34. Shower - Becky G

35. Main Chick - Kid Ink featuring Chris Brown

36. Trumpets - Jason Derulo

37. Wild Wild Love - Pitbull featuring G.R.L.

38. This Is How We Do - Katy Perry

39. Blame - Calvin Harris featuring John Newman

40. Beg For It - Iggy Azalea featuring MØ

Previewing Shameless: Season Five

It seems like every season of Shameless I think to myself, they cannot possibly get any more, well, shameless, but they always seem to out do themselves each season. In season three, they gave Frank cancer and followed that up by having his liver shut down the following season. The rest of the Gallagher clan did not fair any better. Fiona lost her cushy cup job by sleeping with her boss/boyfriend’s brother and celebrated by leaving out her cocaine for Liam to get into, landing her in jail. Lip struggled as the small fish in the big pond of college by survived by finding a sugar momma. Ian went AWOL and started to show symptoms of bi-polar like his mother. Carl found the female version of him and was left brokenhearted while Debbie started hanging out with an older boy who was the one rare gentleman on the show. Granted he mostly kept his hands to himself to stay out of jail. Oh yeah, and Jimmy, who we were lead to believe was going to Davy Jones Locker, popped up at the end of the season out front of the Gallagher homestead with a new lady friend.

After a season of agony, Frank finally got a new liver, a new wife, and a new daughter while Fiona got out of jail and found a new job as a waitress. Spring is in the air as the fifth season starts. Sammi (who has been promoted to the opening credits; Mandy Milkovich gets demoted to recurring while another regular looks like they will not be around much this season either) has moved next to Sheila’s house. Despite still healing, Frank quickly goes back on his grind working on something in the basement, yes you will learn what it is by the end of the episode (the episode “Milk of the Gods” will give you a hint) but you will definitely want to stick around to the end of episode three to see just how successful the enterprise is.

Meanwhile Fiona has assimilated herself well into her new job by the time we catch up with her. Though we know Jimmy is still alive and around (I believe Fiona just thinks he abandoned her at the end of season three) she has some new prospects, neither of them seem very healthy for her. Lip is on his first summer break from college and finds himself caught between his old life on the South Side and one with his sugar momma while Ian is in marital bliss living with Micky and his Russian bride.

The younger Gallagher kids Carl and Debbie are in a battle to see who can lose their virginity first. Next door, Kev and V are adjusting to their new lives as parents of twin girls. But then again, all they have to do is to keep them out of their cocaine stash to do a better job than Fiona.


But this is Shameless and the reason to tune in is to see how they top themselves and this season there are some major haircuts, lots of breastfeeding, Frank spends Father’s Day with the father of his former liver’s owner, date rape, a marriage, someone loses their home, lesbian have moved in to gentrify the area, and much more. As for the most shameless moment of the first couple episodes features Frank and an child amputee. But I no longer think that the writers will find something even more shameless later in the season.

Shameless airs Sundays at 9:00 on Showtime.

Previewing House of Lies: Season Two

Whenever an actress show up to work pregnant the writers basically only have two options (they are no longer able to utilize a third option anymore after a soap opera actress sued when she was fired for getting fat back in the nineties). First is to ignore the pregnancy and just shoot the actress from the chest up or have her hide behind coaches and always carry bags (How I Met Your Mother actually had to do this in two seasons back to back when both lead actresses got knocked up, included the one who’s character was unable to conceive). Option two is to write the pregnancy into the storyline like Nashville did with Juliet’s shoehorned pregnancy coming out of nowhere.

Back in season two, the writers of House of Lies chose the former option when Kristen Bell reported to work in that starting to get fat period of a pregnancy. It was weird, on a show where characters constantly bag on each other; no one mentioned Jennie’s drastic weight gain. Even worse during a sex scene, they hired a body double whose body looked like Kristen’s without a bun in the oven and there were cuts where Jennie kept on gaining and losing about thirty pounds.

For the second time in three seasons Bell showed up on set with Dax Sheppard’s spawn in her stomach region. This time around the writers opted for the second option thus making Jennie pregnant too. Plus this works from a storyline perspective because Jennie is kind of a drunken slut sleeping from everyone from a sex toy maker to a gangsta to Dick Casablancas in three seasons of the show. Oh yeah, and there is always Marty, of course he is probably the father, it is not like Clyde got some. And from a creative standpoint, the pregnancy is a boon because we finally get some fat jokes and maybe the best scene of the whole series comes in episode two when Doug and his wife try to adopt the unborn child and raise it as their own..

Not as successful is how the writers were able to get Marty his job back. When we left off, the government had Marty dead to rights on multiple charges. But Marty was able cut a deal where his was able to keep his company with minimal jail time. Season four starts off with Marty already don with his bid, but we do get some flashbacks with Marty running into a potential client behind bars played by Demitri Martin.

And Marty really needs him as a client because though he was able to keep his firm, most of his former clients do not want to work with an ex-con, now Khan and Associates only employs four workers and rests out their space to a app upstart. Be on the look out for another Veronica Mars cameo, one by one of the few that appeared on the show that did not make it into the movie.

House of Lies airs Sundays airs Sundays at 10:00 followed by all new episodes of Episodes at 10:30.

Around the Tubes: 1/9/15

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Justified, The Great British Baking Show, Face-Off, Cesar 911, Amazing America with Sarah Palin, Hackers, Inside Comedy, The Chase, The Hotwives of Las Vegas, and The Breaks.

- Truths will be revealed. Fates will be sealed. The final season of Justified premieres 1/20 on FX.


- The competition is heating up in the tent as we enter week three of The Great British Baking Show airing Sunday, January 11 at 8:00 p.m. ET, airing before episode 2 of Downton Abbey on PBS. (Show times may vary, please check local listings in your market). The Great British Baking Show is carbo-loaded with fun and bun-biting excitement as the series rolls on in America. For those who wish to catch up on the series, viewers can access each episode anytime with online streaming the day after broadcast on www.pbs.org.

- Glenn, Ve, Neville, and McKenzie welcome back familiar faces for a new season of exciting challenges on Face-Off. Watch the season premiere on January, 13 at 9:00 on Syfy.

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- Last year, Cesar Millan proved once again that he is the leader of the pack when it comes to rehabilitating dogs and training people, with the successful launch of his new Nat Geo WILD series, Cesar 911. And now, for the first time, Nat Geo WILD brings to the small screen Millan’s live stage show that has traveled the world, in a two-hour special, Cesar Millan: Viva Las Vegas!, premiering Friday, Feb. 20, at 9:00 before the return of Cesar 911 the following week on Friday, Feb. 27, at 9:00.

- Sportsman Channel’s Amazing America with Sarah Palin, produced by Pilgrim Studios, has announced its two co-hosts for the second season of the network original series premiering on January 15, 2015 at 9:00. Jerry Carroll, returning host from the first season, will be joined by Miss USA 2006 Tara Conner in the field.

- Syfy this week announced that it is teaming with Relativity Television ("Catfish: The TV Series") to develop a groundbreaking new unscripted series, Hackers, which will take viewers deep inside the shadowy and dangerous world of high-tech hackers for the very first time. Hackers will reveal the secrets behind the most infamous cyber-crimes ever committed, using sophisticated, never-before-seen digital graphics to create an experiential “hacking” scene that exposes what actually happens when a computer network is broken into – including what goes on inside the mind of the hacker.

- Showtime has picked up its critically-acclaimed documentary series Inside Comedy, from comedy forces David Steinberg and Steve Carell, for a fourth season slated to premiere later this year. Steinberg will continue as host of the six, half-hour episodes featuring one-of-a-kind interviews with some of the biggest names in pop culture who have captured the zeitgeist of the last several decades. Season four to include much buzzed about entertainers including Stephen Colbert, Michael Keaton, Bryan Cranston, Dan Aykroyd, among others.

- GSN, the leader in game shows and competitive entertainment, announced this week the premiere of the fourth season of its Emmy®-nominated hit quiz show, The Chase on Tuesday, January 27 at 8:00. Brooke Burns returns as host, along with the brilliant and intimidating Mark Labbett (aka “The Beast”) facing down all challengers in the ultimate trivia challenge.

- Hulu announced today the renewal of hit original series The Hotwives of Orlando from Paramount Digital Entertainment. The second season of the series will return in 2015 as The Hotwives of Las Vegas and will move locations from scenic Orlando to Las Vegas.

- Continuing its success in the scripted arena, VH1 announces The Breaks (Working Title) as its next original movie project. Inspired by journalist Dan Charnas’ book “The Big Payback,” a narrative history of the hip-hop business, “The Breaks” (WT) will make its television debut written, directed and executive produced by Seith Mann (“The Wire,” “The Walking Dead,” “Homeland”). VH1 plans to start principal photography in Spring 2015 with a premiere date set for Fall 2015. The Breaks (WT) has the potential to become a series after its movie premiere.

Previewing Hindsight

I always enjoy whenever Laura Ramsey ever pops up on screen. No not because she is a good actress and though she is attracted she is not cut off your left leg just to spend time with her attractive. No, I always smile whenever I come across her is that I am reminded of one of the great lost cinematic gems of the millennium: The Real Cancun. For those that have forgotten, after creating the reality television show craze, the producers of The Real World decided to make a feature length film based on the same concept on the big screen. Of course a reality movie is just a documentary and The Real Cancun made about what other documentaries made: about a buck and a half despite ten times the budget.

Sadly for the cast of The Real Cancun, they did not get an invite to The Challenge or even make a living on the bar circuit like other reality also-rans do, they all just went back to the real real world. Laura Ramsey was the one exception showing up in the occasion in the types of movies that usually populate the second and third tier premium channel for a couple months and even got to bang Don Draper, but then again, what actress in Hollywood not hooked up with Don Draper?

So when VH1 started running ads hyping a new show Hindsight starring Laura set in the nineties (which even the National Geographic Channel considered the last great decade) I was all in from the first notes of The Sign. I may even dig out thee VCR to tape the episodes. Yeah VH1 may seem like a weird fit for a nineties retro show considering in the last decade it has morphed into the all WAGs channel (for those not up with British tabloid slag, it stands for “wives and girlfriend” who are basically the talentless socialite of England) bit this is also the channel that gave us I Love the 90’s. There is an entertaining montage in the first episode with Laura rediscovering all the great nineties fashions which Michael Ian Black and company all waxed poetic on. Oh way did hot chicks in overalls go out of fashion?

Sure recent period shows that most everyone who is watching lived through can be tricky. When done right, like Everybody Hates Chris they can be the best shows on television, but when the writers get too cut, like the cell phone scene on That 80’s Show or when one of the guys on Reunion predicted the other guy in Wham! would be more successful than George Michael, the show will be one and done.

But Hindsight is not you typical period television show, it is technically a time traveling show which starts off in present day on the eve of Ramsey’s second wedding day before she wakes up on her wedding day except this is her first back to 1995. There is not wish to go back or a magical amulet, just what may or may not be some mystical black Buddhist.

It is a good thing the show went back to the nineties because the present day stuff is extremely boring with Ramsey whining in voice over the whole time about being a failure (again, she is not the greatest actress in the world and having her narrate the show may not have been the best idea, Kristen Bell she is not). Really you could skip the first fifteen minutes and not miss anything.

Now back in the nineties, Ramsey has to decide to go through with marrying the passionate long-haired British dude that she know will fail within a decade or just go straight to her boring but safe fallback choice who she ends up marrying in present day anyway. Or maybe there is a third yet to be determined option, maybe the possibly mystical black Buddhist.

Okay, Hindsight is not a great show, but what it lacks in good acting it makes up for in a great soundtrack. Do not pretend you did not smile when you heard Ace of Base in the series trailer for the first time in maybe a decade and a half (well, the non a capella version). Seriously, when was the last time you heard U2’s Numb? Throw in Biggie during a sex scene, The Cranberries during an introspective scene, and the Spin Doctors at a party and the show starts becoming watchable. If there is not a Spotify playlist by the premiere the VH1 marketing department has massively failed. I know it is just the second week in January, but I am ready to declare Hindsight the Guiltiest Guilty Pleasure of 2015.

Hindsight airs Wednesdays at 10:00 on VH1.

Previewing Hack My Life

We have all been there, you are hosting a cookout and it is time to fire up the grill only to find you are out of charcoal. Now you are in the unenviable position of either leaving your own party or sheepishly asking one of your guests to go get you some. But what if you can light the grill with something already at party; maybe marshmallow, maybe the potatoes ships, or possibly even the Doritos? Which of these three party essentials will help you cook the perfect burger in a pinch is the type of information you will learn on the new show Hack My Life.

Yeah, I know, with all the negative hacking stories in the news last year, Hack My Life may not be the best title of a show; it is so bad it is surprising that it is not a sitcom on ABC. The show is hosted by Kevin Pereira (who you may remember as the disembodied voice you heard while starring at Olivia Munn on Attack of the Show) and Brooke Van Poppelen who each week will show you short cuts that could save you time, effort, and money with about ten or so hacks every week. The show is basically Mr. Wizard for adults. Now I need to see if I am brave enough to try to open a wine bottle with a bicycle pump because I am not having much success with an actual wine bottle opener.

Have your own life hacks, viewers will be invited to share their own hacks via a new Hack My Life hub at hackmylifetrutv.tumblr.com, with each week's best hack to be featured on the show. The Hack My Life initiative marks the first time that Tumblr's user-generated content will be featured in every episode of a weekly series.

Hack My Life airs Tuesdays at 10:30 on TruTV.

Previewing Ultimate Survival Alaska: Season Three

Last year I discovered that Ultimate Survival Alaska made for a good stop-gap in between seasons of Survivor, which does not return to late Febuary, for my competition fix (though this year The Challenge starts this week two but at the ungodly hour of 11:00 for some reason). Granted I need this season of Ultimate Survival Alaska to get the stench of Blood vs. Water II from my mind (clearly the format is flawed, the first season was only entertaining thanks to Ciera), one of the bottom five worst season of the show. Really, Baylor and Keith are the only ones from the season I would even mind seeing again. The others I would be mad would get an invite back. Well, I would be mad if I saw one of the twins, the douchebag brothers, or the catty gay dude, the rest I probably will not even remember them if I ever saw them again. With that said I am looking forward to Blue Collar vs. White Collar vs. No Collar; the show is at its best when it divides team by personal or physical traits with the exception of the age season.

Not that Ultimate Survival Alaska is much like Survivor, it is much more akin to The Amazing Race since this is an actual race. Except there are no elimination no silly challenges, all you have to do is get to point A to point B in sixty hours without dieing. And that is the reason to watch, unlike the control environment of Survivor, there is a fair chance of serious injury and even death climbing up glaciers and trekking through bear country. And if you lose your flint, there is no Jeff Probst to barter with for new supplies or more food. Within the first fifteen minutes of the new season, there is already the first near death experience.

This season Team Endurance is back to defend their crown with Team Military, with a new member in tow, is out to avenge their close lost last season. After finishing third, the Mountaineers picked up a new member and since they all now hail from the state dubbed them selves Team Alaska. There is a new team made up of entire newbies called Team Lower 48 with a climber from California, a skier from Utah, and a kayaker from North Carolina. And to say these three to not get along is an understatement, the editor responsible for inserting the bleeps got a workout this season.

The third season opens as usual with teams looking for the Insertion Flag which the producers placed on the other side of a lake where the race starts giving each team the option to either walk around the lake or trying walking over and hope the ice is still thick enough to hold them. Half the teams do trying to transverse the thawing lake. And that is the easy part; from there they have to climb up a mountain to reach the Landing Zone before time expires. Leg twos no easier as they have to descend a mountain right into bear country where they will find the new Landing Zone. Though the competition is grueling, the teams sometime actually manage to have fun like the team that wins the third leg who decides to hide and leaved joke gifts in the winner’s barrel. For those that missed the first two seasons, Ultimate Survival Alaska is a thrilling competition with beautiful scenery that should produce enough entertainment until the new season of Survivor.

Ultimate Survival Alaska airs Sundays at 9:00 on the National Geographic Channel.

Catching Up with Homeland: Season Four

There is an old saying among television writers that you do not save anything for the second season because you do not know if you will get one. The Homeland writers definitely used this philosophy writing a big plot twist with the emotional weight of a season finale every two to three episodes (even though they did not really need to do so because everything on Showtime gets renewed, and basically gets five to seven seasons). They burned through enough plots in one season many shows take three to five seasons to get through.

This was a double edge sword because as awesome and epic as the first season was, the second was a bit of a let down and lost more and more speed as the season progressed. Seriously, Brody killed the Vice President by hacking his heart monitor and no one noticed Brody enter or the leave the office in one of the heavily guarded residence in the nation.

But the second season was still watchable, the show completely came off the rails in season three when the writers gave us the love no one wanted to see. I had to rack my brains to think of a show that had fallen that far that fast, but the demise of most television shows are slow to the point you do not really realize until two or three seasons too late when you wonder why exactly are you still watching. The closest I could come up with was the Belfast season of Sons of Anarchy (also its third season), but that was not bad; it was just mostly boring and cumbersome to sit through.

Sons of Anarchy did rebound when the cast returned to Charming for the most part (it would have been better had FX kept Kurt Sutter’s hubris in check not allowing him to do ninety minute or even two hour episodes just so he could squeeze in a extra ten minute musical montage or three). So there was hope for Homeland, the show finally killed off Brody in the season finale even if it was two seasons too late and teased a move to the Middle East with Carrie getting a position in Kabul. Only Lane Kiffen fails upwards more often than Carrie Mathison.

Season four started off with a hard reboot, Carrie was now the drone queen in the Kabul station, Saul was in the private sector, Quinn was doing Quinn things in Pakistan, and not a Brody to be found, except Baby Brody on Skype. The only thing to stay the same was Lockhart still in charge of the CIA and as curmudgeony as ever. The season starts of with the Drone Queen doing what she does best, sending drones to kill terrorists even if they are at a wedding. Being this is Carrie, probably especially if they are at weddings.

The season really pick up with the death of the Pakistan station chief (after seeing him all summer with an Anime type wig, it was weird seeing Cory Stoll with the thin halo of hair and a dark beard). Then the show had to go back to America and baby Brody with Lockhart threatening to keep the Done Queen stateside. Thankfully Carrie wanted to spend as much time with Baby Brody as the viewers did and blackmailed Lockhart to give yet another promotion, this time as Pakistani station chief.

Where as the fist season burned off finale type plot twists every couple episodes, season four of Homeland seemed more tradition with a slow build to one big moment in the anti-penultimate episode when Haqqani’s plan was finally set in motion. Sure the first half of the season was rough in spots (Carrie sleeping with yet another asset, Quinn’s out of nowhere puppy love of Carrie, Saul’s private sector job being utter inconsequential, the mustache twirling evil female ISI agent, and basically every scene the ambassador’s husband was in) the show finally found it feet right around the time Saul got abducted (granted if former CIA directors are really allowed to walk around unintended in Arab country airports, they should really change that policy).

After the raid on the embassy, we got to finally see Quinn shake out of his season long funk and go full black ops rouge. Sure if this was season one, he would have been allowed to kill Haqqani even with Dar Adal in the back seat). And done it in the first five episodes of the season. But know it look like the writers are saving plot for future seasons. The season was so slow moving, Carrie did not bother to even confront Adal until the end of the finale, after driving cross country to confront her long absent mother and night lasagna with Lockhart, Saul and Quinn (one of the season’s best scenes.)

So at the start of season five it looks like Saul will be back as director of the CIA despite being forced out after the CIA building bombing and just being held capture by a terrorist. It is s sad to see Lockhart get forced out because him going HAM on everyone has been the most entertaining part of the last seasons (though I do not know why he wussed out at the threat of killing Farrah), but this is Homeland where everyone seems to fail upward, so he may be president by the start of season five. It will be interesting to see if Quinn and/or Carrie go rouge next season trying to finally get Haqqani. Or the writer will bring back Dana Brody and have her join ISIS with plenty of hallucinations of her father.

Catching Up with The Affair

It is hard to hear the description for The Affair and not think of last year's Betrayal which was one and done on ABC. That "one" was a season, but the show could have easily been pulled after one episode because it was a bit of a bore and it did not help that the lead's American accent came and went from scene to scene. Both shows followed the extracurricular activities of two married people; one seemed to be in the perfect married, the other q bit of a messy one. There is also a murder clumsily tacked onto the plot that just reeks of network meddling which was probably the case for ABC, Showtime seems more laissez faire).

Of course that is the biggest difference is that the same type of show is much more likely to be more watchable on premium channels compared to free television because Showtime can attract better actors, writers, it is easier to tell a concise story in ten episodes compared to twenty-two, and it is doubtful ABC could get Fiona Apple to write them a theme song. The biggest difference story wise is The Affair tells the story from the narrative view of each of the adulterers. Sure, again, ABC just did that again this season with yet another one and done series Manhattan Love Story but where that show just followed the inner monologue from the two leads, The Affair give each lead their side of the story of a single day during their tryst.

Before you have Lost flashbacks where that show would annoyingly re-film a scene from a different point of view, basically seeing the same scene from different camera angle up to four different times, the adulterers Noah and Allison had different recollections of how their dalliance happened. Sometimes it would be as minor as he would remember her hair down and she would have it in a ponytail. Sometimes it would be wildly different (the biggest of which comes in tonight's season finale) and in some cases, he would remember them hooking up in a field but when she retold the story, she was not even there. Really this has to be the best writing gig in town because any pothole or errors in continuity they can just blame the characters on miss remembering.

The most interesting part of this storytelling is just how Noah and Allison view each other and themselves. According to Noah, he is this noble super-dad and husband (well aside from that whole cheating thing), while his parents-in-law are the big bads despite providing his lifestyle probably even helped him transition into a man because his father is not even worth mentioning. To Noah, Allison is a flirty local who always makes the first step.

For Allison, she is the victim, taking no culpability in her son's death; it was either bad luck or her husbands fault. Noah is the emotional support that she can no longer get from her husband because talking to him would mean having to come to term with the death of her some even if Noah come across as a little sleazy, and of course he always makes the first move. Really all the guys in her life are kind of sleazy, her bothers in laws are drug dealers (of course she is an unwilling participant again refusing to admit her involvement), and her boss is constantly trying to have sex with her again for the first time in fifteen years. And again, her mother-in-law can be seen as the enemy even though she was there for Allison when her own mother was not.

The two even have two different views on the murder that happens sometime in the future, Noah thinks he went through a messy divorce while Allison thinks he has been happily married for over two decades. Are they juxtaposition their own realities on him or is the detective telling the two what they want to hear to make him seem more reliable. In the finale we get a third extremely different possibility to the detective’s love life when neither of the two leads is around.

Alrighty, this is the part I am going to get into a bit of the spoilers from the first season now, continue reading at you own risk.

Like I mentioned earlier, it seemed like ABC meddling when Betrayal inserted a murder plotline, but that does not seem like Showtime's MO. But the murder subplot seemed to be shoehorned into most episodes, given about a minute at the beginning or end of each act of the show. The murder victim seem like it was some big mystery, but halfway through the season, the detective just causally mentioned that Allison's bother-in-law Scott was the deceased. Up until that point the other time I remembered him was trying to sneak upstairs with Noah's daughter. Which of course put Noah high on my list of suspects (okay, he was basically the only one, aside from creepy diner owner and un-scene drug traffickers). Not surprisingly Scott turned out to be Whitney's baby daddy.

As I teased, tonight's episode features what is probably the most different retelling of a scene this season which features many of the show's main players finding themselves in the same place at the time. Where I tend to believe Allison over Noah, this scene is one of the few times I believe Noah's version more, plus his version of events may be the best scene this season.

Though it seems like an after thought in the first couple episodes, we do spend more time in the still undetermined future (unless I missed if they let us in on a date). But unlike Betrayal where we got the murder mystery wrapped up in a nice neat bow before the season series ended, The Affair leaves that a bit up in the air. But since this is a premium channel, even poorly rated series get at least a second season and The Affair has already been renewed And since the future seems at least five years away, it may take us a while to catch up.

The Affair airs its season finale tonight at 10:00 on Showtime preceded by the season finale of Homeland at 9:00.

Previewing Sleepless in America

A couple weeks ago, National Geographic Channel highlighted a task we all do and many of us take for granted when their aired their mini-series for eat. When it comes to eating, it seems like most of us do too much or too little of it. Tonight, the channel takes another deep dive in another task many of us think as mundane but everyone does it. But unlike eating, there are not two extremes, it seems like Americans only getting not enough sleep each night.

Sleepless in America takes a look at why forty percent of adults (and seventy percent of teenagers) are considered sleep deprived, some times with fatal consequences. It is theorized that not enough sleep led to the Exxon Valdez tanker cash, the Three Mile Island Meltdown, and most recently the Walmart driver who rammed Tracy Morgan's limo leaving one passenger dead and the comic in the hospital in a month and who is still undergoing treatment for traumatic brain injury.

Morgan is not the only one, the two hour special starts out with the story of a family torn apart by a doctor coming home from a lengthy rotation and veered across four lanes hitting a family of six head on with half not surviving and the other half spending months and years worth of rehabilitation. Drowsiness is not the only result of not getting enough sleep and it is also believe to cause mental health problems, as well as diabetes, heart disease, and an increase risk of cancer and Alzheimer's.

If you are in the forty percent, or have a school aged kid, Sleepless in America may be the most important special you watch on television this year. Over the course of two hours, it will give you warning signs that you are not getting enough sleep and more importantly how to get a good night's sleep if you are one of the millions of Americans dealing with insomnia.

Sleepless in America premieres tonight at 8:00 on the National Geographic Channel.