57 Channels and Only This Is On: May 1, 2022

 

Fear the Walking Dead:  I was not expecting this show to do a teen rom-com episode.  That was weird.  Though one of the teens died and the other one is dying.  At first I thought June and Charlie were playing up the sickness to get the dude to turn off the beckon, but it turns out she really is sick.  Which would make her the second main character seemingly with a terminal diagnosis.  Though, maybe I should use main in quotations because I spent most of the episode trying to remember when the last time we saw Charlie was.  I think she may have been with the group who were holed up in the fort after the bomb went off, but I do not remember her ever being around Morgan since the explosion.

 

The First Lady:  I forgot how racist the media was against Michelle Obama.  She was so beloved during her time as First Lady; it was shocking to remember how some tried to portray her as the “angry black woman.  Oof.

 

The Endgame:  Elena has panned everything out so meticulously, but she did not have a plan in place for the president to just say fork it and bury her alive?  You would think she would have Snow White monitoring the place in case she was ever removed from Fort Tottem.  How do you not see that coming?

 

The Girl from Plainville:  Involuntary intoxication… I may have to remember that one.  Though I guess it is not a great defense if there is a warning at the start of the episode basically saying very few professionals believe it is a thing.  And though I could see it coming from a mile away, the title of the episode was Teenage Dirtbag, but seeing a bunch of grade schoolers sing the song to Michelle was creepy but still fairly entertaining.

 

Moon Knight:  While it is not uncommon for people to create a new persona when dealing with trauma, I was under the impression the primary creates the new persona to deal with the grief, not to be the one who only remembers their mother and a nice and caring person.  That was a little weird.  But R.I.P. Steven?  Though if Mark created him once, I guess he could do it again when he makes it to the land of the living again.

 

The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans:  Oh no, it looks like Julie was trying to make up for the months she did not drink during her first visit to New Orleans in one night.  But why doesn’t Tokyo just leave?  Danny also wanted to stay, let her be his problem and let them get an Uber later.

 

Survivor:  Oh joy, another special episode.  But what makes Drea look bad was that she voted out Chantelle and was talking about stealing Maryanne’s Idol.  Seems like she was perfectly fine with getting rid of half of the black people left, she just got mad when he closest black ally got voted out.  I do wonder if anyone will explain to her the reason why Rocksroy was booted was because he was trying to start an all dudes alliance. Then Maryanne was perfectly fine going to Tribal and voting out another black person when the last Tribal she went to another one was voted out then had to be told by Drea why she should be offended.

 

But I was sure Tori would be the first successful person to play the Shot in the Dark.  I have been talking all season we knew Tori would not go home because the opening montage showed her find something so I was extremely shocked that she went home before she found anything.  I re-watched that opening montage and Jeff talked about the dumb phrase advantage while there was a close up of Tori making a shocked face but it seems like I just somehow morphed that into that she found something.

 

The Flight Attendant: So are the two bodies found in the lake the two people who were in Cassie’s house?  And did fake Cassie alert someone to the bodies being there so they would be found?  But doesn’t Cassie have a pretty good alibi of being in Iceland at the time?  Sure, she was not on the manifest, but her FBI buddy and the person who seat she took can vouch for her.

 

Under the Banner of Heaven:  I know this is based on re al events, but the show does not need a murder mystery, the Mormon family drama in the eighties is interesting enough.  I could do without the cop stuff.  With both episodes going over an hour, I definitely could have also down without the Joseph Smith flashbacks too.  Then the second had way too much dog murder.

 

Made for Love:  Did they really think they could do weeks of treatments without someone noticing?  I understand dude is a bit of a recluse, but wouldn’t he need to go to the grocery store eventually or pick up his meds?  He is just never going to go for a walk?  At least he figured it out by the end of the episode.

 

Halo:  After the big battle last week, this week was a bit of a letdown.  I did like when Master Chef locked the doctor up to see if she put a failsafe in Cortana, but the rest fell flat, especially the reveal of the titular place which really means nothing to someone like me who never played the game.

 

The Blacklist:  So Red basically started the episode working through if Mr. Kaplan was really and how silly it sounds that she could be the one be to kill Lizzie, basically saying pretty much what I said last week.  But I am now thinking that the sister is behind it all.  They did make a point to say how much she looks like her sister.  But how convenient that neither Red nor Harold bothered to join the raid.  I knew that place was going to blow up the moment neither got out of the car.

 

Around the Tubes: April 30, 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 Showtime Free Preview, Schitt’s Creek, The Beach Boys, Travelin’ Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall, Sheryl, Neneh Cherry, and AccuWeather NOW.  

- SHOWTIME today launches a Free Preview with select distributors through Monday, May 2. Viewers can now access the network's award-winning programming on the Apple TV app for free — no subscription necessary. Viewers can simply visit apple.co/Showtime on iPhone, iPad or Mac to be directed right to the Free Preview, log in with their Apple ID*, and press play. Viewers can also watch the SHOWTIME Free Preview on the Apple TV app on Apple TV 4K and HD, or supported smart TVs, gaming consoles, and cable set-top boxes.  The SHOWTIME Free Preview is also available on other participating distributors, including Cox Communications, Mediacom, Liberty Communications of PR, Breezeline, Hotwire Communications, WOW!, Cincinnati Bell (now altafiber), TDS, BendBroadband, Service Electric Cablevision, Service Electric Cable TV & Communications, Buckeye Broadband and more in 157 markets across the U.S.

- Hulu announced that it will be the dedicated subscription video on-demand destination for critically acclaimed and fan favorite series “Schitt’s Creek” in the U.S. beginning October 3, 2022.  “Based on the number of ‘Schitt’s Creek’ GIFs we Slack every day, it’s no surprise that we are absolutely thrilled to welcome Johnny, Moira, Alexis, ‘Daviiid’ and the wonderfully unique residents of Schitt’s Creek to Hulu,” said Joe Earley, President of Hulu. “We can’t wait to share the award-winning, blisteringly-funny, yet heartwarming series and characters with our subscribers. We know they’ll fit in nicely.”  “Schitt’s Creek” centers on an outrageously wealthy video store magnate, Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy); his former soap-star wife Moira (Catherine O'Hara); and their two adult children – the self-described black sheep of the family David (Daniel Levy) and career socialite Alexis (Annie Murphy). When the family suddenly find themselves broke, they have no choice but to move to Schitt's Creek, a small-town Johnny once bought as a joke. Forced to live out of a motel, with their pampered lives a memory, they struggle to find jobs and relationships and, most importantly, figure out what it means to be a family in the loveable town they’ve reluctantly come to call home. 

- Upon signing to Capitol Records in 1962 and releasing their first album, Surfin’ Safari, that same year, the three young brothers, cousin, and friend from Hawthorne, Calif., known simply as The Beach Boys, soared to popularity with their ebullient sound that embodied the Southern California beach lifestyle with sunshiny vocal harmonies, twangy guitars, upbeat songs about surf culture, and their youthful exuberance. Propelled by the hits “Surfin’” and “Surfin’ Safari,” the album, which uncommon for its day, featured mostly original songs, spent 37 weeks on the Billboard chart and set the course for one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful bands of all time, who have gone on to sell more than 100 million records worldwide. With each album, The Beach Boys refined their songwriting and production skills, rapidly evolving from their early surf beginnings to create some of the most sonically exquisite and most important and beloved music ever made.  Sixty years after first transmitting their good vibrations around the globe, The Beach Boys, the first American pop band to reach the 60-year milestone, remain one of the most legendary and influential groups to date, with their timeless music reverberating through modern culture today as strong as ever. In celebration of their 60^th anniversary, UMe, the global catalog company of UMG, is pleased to be a part of some of the major initiatives planned to celebrate “America’s Band” throughout 2022-23. To kick off the yearlong celebration and provide the perfect summer soundtrack, Capitol Records and UMe will release a newly remastered and expanded edition of The Beach Boys career-spanning greatest hits collection, Sounds Of Summer: The Very Best Of The Beach Boys, on June 17. 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 collection has been updated in both number of songs and audio quality, expanding 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 and from their 1962 debut album, Surfin’ Safari through to 1989’s Still Cruisin’.

- Craft Recordings, Concord Originals and Marathan Films are excited to announce the production of the documentary concert feature film Travelin’ Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall, directed by two-time GRAMMY® Award winner Bob Smeaton (The Beatles Anthology and Jimi Hendrix Band of Gypsies) and narrated by Academy Award®-winning actor Jeff Bridges, who like his iconic character “The Dude” in The Big Lebowski, is a fan of the band. The film features the ONLY full concert footage of the original Creedence Clearwater Revival to ever be released.

- On March 11, a full-length documentary film directed by Amy Scott, entitled Sheryl about the singer-songwriter's life and career, premiered at SXSW, ahead of the May 6 premiere on SHOWTIME. An intimate story of song and sacrifice, Sheryl navigates an iconic yet arduous musical career while the artist battles sexism, ageism, depression, cancer, and the price of fame, before harnessing the power of her gift.  In conjunction, UMe/Big Machine Records will release a new album called Sheryl: Music From The Feature Documentary digitally and on 2CD on May 6. The release features Sheryl Crow’s biggest hits, including "If It Makes You Happy," "Soak Up The Sun, "All I Wanna Do, "My Favorite Mistake, "Redemption Day," and many more, as well as deep tracks and three newly recorded songs. To preorder Sheryl: Music From The Feature Documentary, click HERE

- Neneh Cherry announces a new project titled The Versions out June 10^th, a collaboration album of covers from her expansive catalogue by an all-female line-up of some of the most exciting and revered artists of our time. Listen to superstar songwriter Sia’s version of Neneh’s hit “Manchild” out today below.  LISTEN TO “MANCHILD” BY SIA HERE.  WATCH THE LYRIC VIDEO HERE.  PRE-ORDER THE VERSIONS HERE.  The Versions is a 10-track album featuring Neneh Cherry reworks from artists that have a personal connection to the artist and her music. Sia expresses her love for Neneh and her family saying, “Neneh was my favorite artist when she hit the scene. I saved my pocket money for red filas and dreamt one day we would meet. When I was struggling with my mental health in my early twenties, I somehow ended up in their house being taken care of as if I was one of their own children. I called her husband during a suicide attempt, who had been mentoring me as an incredible music producer, and they gave me all the love I could have dreamt of. I owe them a huge thanks and would sing ‘a-b-c’ for them if they asked. Neneh, my very first queen, Cameron my bonus dad, I love you forever amen!”

- AccuWeather NOW^TM, the new video streaming product from AccuWeather, the proven leader in weather forecast accuracy, announced it has officially launched on Amazon Freevee, a free ad-supported streaming service that delivers premium content without having to purchase a subscription.  Amazon Freevee viewers will now have to access AccuWeather’s forecasts as well as 24/7, continuous daily programming, dedicated to all things weather, including extreme and natural events, global forecasts, climate and weather-related news impacting our changing world and long-and short-form documentaries through the streaming platform, accessible and free to watch and stream from any device.  Amazon Freevee is free, customizable and includes critical weather information from AccuWeather NOW^TM streaming service into their platform listing.

Previewing I Love That for You

 

The truth is stranger than fiction.  And whenever fiction thinks it has come up with something they think is stranger, the truth comes through and proves it still is the strangest.  Case in point, when Showtime ordered I Love That for You, a story about someone who lies about their cancer diagnosis to get a job, they probably thought it was some farfetched comedy premise.  But about a month before the show premiered, new broke that a writer on Grey’s Anatomy lied about having cancer and having an abortion.  The truth remains undefeated in its weirdness.

 

I Love That for You stars Vanessa Bayer whose own childhood leukemia inspired the show (it is unknown if Breyer liked about still having cancer to get on Saturday Night Live or if Bayer as a child guilted nurses into giving her cake like her character in flashbacks does).  But instead of SNL, her character’s dream is to be a host on the Special Value Network, basically a fictional Home Shopping Network.  Fellow SNL alum Molly Shannon plays her mentor.

 

Jenifer Lewis, fresh off the series finale of Black’ish plays the CEO of SVN and anyone who watched her former shows knows she can easily deliver great one liner with her sharp tongue and steals every scene she is in.  The other notable part of the show is Bayer’s love of nineties music, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, and The Cranberries are all featured in the first episode.  Though the only reference in the second episode is that someone wears a Tribe Called Quest shirt.

 

I Love That for You airs Sundays at 8L30 on Showtime, but episodes are uploaded the Friday before each televised episode On Demand and streaming.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: April 24, 2022

 

 

Fear the Walking Dead:  Oof, that was a fairly week way to return from a hiatus.  Then they killed off the only mildly interesting part of it.

 

The Endgame:  So the cameraman turned out to be the president who stole all the gold in the Federal Reserve.  What?!?  This show is just getting batshirt crazy and I am all for it.  How does he get all that gold out of there?  How did Elena know this?  That heist deserves its own episode.

 

The Girl from Plainville:  They have been telling us of the altercation between Coco and Co, it almost feels like a letdown to finally see that.  Not to mention, Coco kind of deserved it.  Though to see him flack off on his job to play video games on top of his attempted suicide, it does seem like that kid needed a lot more help than what he actually got.

 

Moon Knight:  I am not up on my Egyptian mythology, but that was not Ammit at the end, was it? And Mark freeing Steven but sees another person trapped inside a tomb and just keeps walking seems very cruel of him.

 

The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans:  It was interesting they had the cast enter much like they did the first time but they did not have <strike>David</strike>Tokyo meet Julie on the trolley, leaving her to enter the house last.  Though, considering everything that happened after the original show, not that surprising that had Julie enter last by herself..  Speaking of things that happened after the show, it is a shame they filmed this at the same time as The Challenge: The Senior Tour 3 so we would have gotten a possibly even more awkward reunion of Julie and Veronica; you think writing a defamatory letter is bad, Julie almost murdered Veronica.  But anyway.  Who would have guessed that Tokyo would have been the biggest voice of reason twenty years later?  But I have very little relocation of Danny or Jamie from the original season.

 

Survivor:  My goodness, just how many advantages does Drea have now?  That has to be a record for most at a single time.  I do routinely complain about all these new twists, but I have to admit, I did like that the new caught red handed beware advantage turned out to be literal.  How she did not go straight to the ocean after getting back to the beach is beyond me.  I wonder if Tori will do anything after catching Drea literally red handed.  Would anyone believe her?

 

The Flight Attendant: I thought for sure after the first episode the new flight attendant was Casey’s doppelgänger, but after the second, I am not quite sure.  It is really doubtful it is the lady in the couple that copied Casey’s phone and abducted her neighbor.  Cheryl Hines does give me older Casey vibes, but why would someone high up in the CIA set Casey up herself?  The show set up a lot of questions in these first two episode, we will see if they can successfully answer them all.

 

Halo:  Oh wow, our first action sequence since the first episode.  You would think a show based on a first person shooter would have a little more action.  But I guess television has a budgetary restraint.  I guess that is why we do not get any live action video game television shows.

 

Ghosts:  I thought for sure someone would get sucked off this episode, instead we just got a sucked off fake out.  Though Sam and Jay almost got sucked down.  Is this show just going to turn into The Money Pit in season two?

 

The Blacklist:  One thing I am surprised red did not ask was who even would know where this person hiding the safe was and where Red even got his safe.  But it looks like Red sound out the who… or at the very least who this person wants to think is behind all this. I am having a hard time believing that Mr. Kaplan was behind Lizzie’s death, oh and she threw herself off a bridge five years ago.

Around the Tubes: April 23, 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 Curb Your Enthusiasm, Victoria's Secret: Angels and Demons, The Circus, Elton John, Florence + the Machine, Of Monsters and Men, Glass Animals, Eddie Vedder, Marcus King, The Survivor, The Chi, and Fellow Travelers.

- HBO’s iconic comedic series, from writer/producer/comedian Larry David, will have you laughing in your seats as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment releases Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Eleventh Season on DVD June 14, 2022. Life will be prett-ay, prett-ay, prett-ay good as you binge on all 10 episodes from the outrageous eleventh season. Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Eleventh Season will retail for $19.99 SRP ($24.99 in Canada) and will also be available to own on Digital via purchase from all major digital retailers. All seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm are now available for streaming on HBO Max.  Starring Larry David as an over-the-top version of himself, the iconic Emmy® and Golden Globe®-winning comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm offers a tongue-in-cheek depiction of the writer/producer/comedian’s fictionalized life. With Jeff Garlin (as manager Jeff Greene), Susie Essman (as Jeff’s wife Susie), Cheryl Hines (as Larry’s ex-wife Cheryl), JB Smoove (as Leon), and Richard Lewis and Ted Danson (as themselves), all reprising their roles alongside a rotating cast of familiar faces, including Vince Vaughn (as Freddy Funkhouser) and Tracey Ullman (as Irma Kostroski), Season 11 finds Larry once again seeking and dispensing his own peculiar brand of social justice.

- The Emmy^® nominated series THE CIRCUS: INSIDE THE GREATEST POLITICAL SHOW ON EARTH wraps up the first half of its seventh season this Sunday in the Sunshine State, where Governor Ron DeSantis is making Florida the central battlefield in a fight over cultural issues that has nationwide implications for this fall's elections and beyond.  Hosts John Heilemann, Alex Wagner, Jennifer Palmieri and Mark McKinnon fan out across Florida, covering the fallout from a spate of new, controversial laws, driven by the governor, that include what opponents call the "Don't Say Gay" law and legislation restricting access to abortion. Meanwhile, the Governor and state Republicans escalate their fight with Disney over its opposition to a new law, enacting legislation to strip the company of a special longstanding tax privilege.  For a preview, go to: https://youtu.be/G7g6PiyzbN4

- Hulu's Original docu-series "Victoria's Secret: Angels and Demons" premieres on Thursday, July 14th.  Investigated with journalistic rigor, Matt Tyrnauer directs this searing and provocative exposé of the Victoria’s Secret brand as well as their then CEO, the larger-than-life, enigmatic billionaire, Les Wexner. Truth is not what it seems; as the underworld of fashion, the billionaire class, and Jeffrey Epstein are revealed to all be inextricably intertwined with the fall of this legendary brand.

- UMe today announces the 50^th-anniversary reissue of Elton John’s Madman Across The Water. Available to pre-order now on stunning 3-CD and 1 Blu-ray Super Deluxe Box Set, 4-LP, 1-LP Limited Edition colored vinyl, and 2-CD formats, the album will be released on June 10. Pre-order here.  Spawning the hits “Tiny Dancer” and “Levon,” Madman Across The Water was Elton’s fourth studio album, released only two years after his debut. Recorded in 1971, it was a foundation stone of what was to become a dazzlingly prolific decade for the global-icon-in-waiting. Madman Across The Water was largely written after Elton had made his initial foray to America, offering the opportunity for lyricist Bernie Taupin to witness first-hand the landscapes and people he’d only seen on a screen or on the page. Recorded at Trident Studios in Central London in February and August 1971, it was the first album where all five players of Elton’s fabled band lineup (Dee Murray, Nigel Olsson, Davey Johnstone, and Ray Cooper) were featured. The album also featured Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman, who plays Hammond organ on three songs.  A newly unveiled Piano Demo of “Tiny Dancer,” taken from the archives and previously unheard, will be available to stream in full later today Here. Watch a preview of the track now Here. Recorded at Dick James Studios in central London in Spring 1971, it is an intimate performance of the song with Elton alone at the piano as a guide for the band later to follow.

- Florence + the Machine unveil a new single, “Free,” today with a video starring acclaimed actor Bill Nighy as Florence’s anxiety and directed by Autumn de Wilde—listen and watch here. The track is the latest from Florence’s forthcoming fifth LP Dance Fever, out May 13.  Florence has shared three songs from Dance Fever thus far—“My Love” (plus remixes from co-producer Dave Bayley of Glass Animals and Meduza), “King” and “Heaven is Here”—all of which arrived alongside videos by the acclaimed director de Wilde featuring choreography by Ryan Heffington.

- Gearing up for another momentous chapter, multiplatinum Icelandic collective Of Monsters and Men unveil a new single entitled “This Happiness” today. Listen to “This Happiness” HERE and watch the official video HERE.  The song sets the stage for the group’s forthcoming EP out June 10th and its accompanying documentary – both titled TÍU (meaning ten in Icelandic).  The documentary, directed by their friend Dean DeBlois (Heima, Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon), follows the band on a trip around their homeland of Iceland. When their Fever Dream world tour was cut short due to the pandemic, they instead intimately performed their new songs in special locations around Iceland that are meaningful to the five of them, much like they had on their very first tour 10 years earlier. No big venues, big festivals or big audiences…just the five of them as it was at the beginning.

- The critically acclaimed, record breaking BRIT and GRAMMY Award-nominated global sensations Glass Animals today releases “I Don’t Wanna Talk (I Just Wanna Dance)” with acclaimed songwriter and artist Albert Hammond Jr.. The original version, released last year, is the first new music from the British four-piece since the colossal global impact of “Heat Waves.” The official video, directed by Drew Kirsch (Taylor Swift, Shakira), captures the power of dance in the post-lockdown world, and now guitarist of legendary rock band The Strokes, Albert Hammond Jr., puts his own spin on the song, written by Dave Bayley about letting off steam after being in a pressure cooker for two years. The Oxford band has since become global hitmakers and record breakers, with “Heat Waves” peaking at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart for five weeks, the longest-leading #1 song by a British group in over 25 years, since Spice Girls’ “Wannabe” in 1997 – and its reign is now among the top 10 longest ever for #1 songs by British groups, including The Beatles (see full list below). Producer and frontman Dave Bayley also joined Denzel Curry on stage at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival last weekend for a surprise performance of “Tokyo Drifting,” and becomes the producer of the moment, co-writing, producing, and remixing Florence + The Machine’s latest single “My Love,” described as “Nick Cave at the Club”.  LISTEN TO “I DON’T WANNA TALK (I JUST WANNA DANCE)” WITH ALBERT HAMMOND JR. HERE

- Pearl Jam’s own Eddie Vedder has teamed up with NASA to interview the crew aboard the International Space Station in celebration of Earth Day 2022. The compelling interview released today touches on climate change and what the astronauts had to say about having a front-row seat to our changing planet.  Watch Eddie Vedder’s Interview HERE.   The interview is the second collaboration with NASA teams as he worked with them on his “Invincible” music video inspired by their Artemis I Moon mission in support of his recent chart topping album Earthling. Watch the “Invincible” music video here!

- Marcus King today announced the release of Young Blood, his new solo album, produced by Dan Auerbach and released August 26 on Rick Rubin’s American Records/Republic Records. Pre-order available here: https://MK.lnk.to/youngblood.  All hail to Marcus King. The 26-year-old Grammy nominated innovative songwriter and phenomenal performer. Soon to become rock royalty with the release of Young Blood, a timeless concoction of swaggering rock and supersonic soul, drawing on his most stadium sized rock influences. He soon embarked on a world tour with headline dates across the U.S and Europe and festivals including Stagecoach. For more information please visit: https://MK.lnk.to/tour

- On April 27, 2022, in honor of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) and in conjunction with the premiere of The Survivor film on HBO, Reboot and USC Shoah Foundation will host a conversation about the film with director Barry Levinson, lead actor Ben Foster, who stars as Holocaust survivor Harry Haft, and producer Matti Leshem.  Levinson’s The Survivor tells the true story of Jewish boxer Harry Haft, who, in order to evade murder in Auschwitz, must test the limits of his moral and physical strength to survive a gladiatorial boxing spectacle staged between prisoners for the amusement of his captors. Levinson delivers a portrait of a man haunted by his survival. An examination of one man’s journey from unspeakable horrors to freedom, forgiveness and redemption, The Survivor debuts Wednesday, April 27 at 8:00 p.m. ET on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.

- SHOWTIME has announced that the highly anticipated fifth season of its hit drama series THE CHI will return with its first new episode on Friday, June 24^th, available on streaming and on demand for all SHOWTIME subscribers before making its on-air debut on Sunday, June 26 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Each new episode of the fifth season will be available on Fridays on streaming and on demand. Season four ended as one of the network’s most-streamed series ever, averaging 4.2 million weekly viewers. THE CHI, from 20^th Television (HOMELAND), is currently in production on 10 episodes in Chicago.  “We’re so honored to be in our fifth season and grateful to the fans that show up for us and make sure people know about THE CHI,” said series creator and executive producer Lena Waithe. “We appreciate the fans so much and hope everyone enjoys this upcoming season. Lots of love.”

- SHOWTIME announced today that Emmy nominee and Critics Choice Award winner Matt Bomer (The Normal Heart, The Boys in the Band) will star in the limited series FELLOW TRAVELERS, which he will executive produce with Oscar nominee Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia) and Robbie Rogers (All American, My Policeman). Daniel Minahan (Halston, American Crime Story: Versace) will executive produce and direct the first two episodes. Co-produced by Fremantle with SHOWTIME, FELLOW TRAVELERS will go into production this July in Toronto. The announcement was made today by Gary Levine and Jana Winograde, Presidents of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Inc.  Based on the novel by Thomas Mallon, FELLOW TRAVELERS is an epic love story and political thriller, chronicling the volatile romance of two very different men who meet in the shadow of McCarthy-era Washington. Bomer will play handsome, charismatic Hawkins Fuller, who maintains a financially rewarding, behind-the scenes career in politics. Hawkins avoids emotional entanglements – until he meets Tim Laughlin, a young man brimming with idealism and religious faith. They begin a romance just as Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn declare war on “subversives and sexual deviants,” initiating one of the darkest periods in 20^th-century American history. Over the course of four decades, Hawk and Tim cross paths through the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, the drug-fueled disco hedonism of the 1970s and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, while facing obstacles in the world and in themselves. 

Previewing The Man Who Fell to Earth

We see shows move from time to time, mostly because of cancelations and other places willing to continue it. But I do not remember a time when two shows got traded like professional sports players.  But that happened in the case of Halo and The Man Who Fell to Earth.  Okay, it was less of a trade and more like a cooperate overlord ordering a more high profile project to attack subscribers to their newly rebranded streaming serves and was nice to send back a different IP back in return.

 

Halo premiered last on Paramount+ to a mixed bag; it was met with a resounding meh by critics and the loudest voices on the internet but it was the most watched premiere in the history of the streamer.   Now it is time for the other half of the trade, The Man Who Fell to Earth to premiere and it is, well, not any worse than Halo, but I am not sure if it is much better.

 

The show is based on a 1963 Walter Tevis book of the same name that has already has been turned into a movie starring David Bowie released in 1976 (full disclosure notice: I have not read the book or read the movie; though I thought I had seen a remake, but it turns out that I was thinking of the similarly titled movie with a similar premise, The Day the Earth Stood Still with Keanu Reeves).  Bill Nighly plays Thomas Jerome Newton; the same character as Bowie, but it not the main character of the new show.  The Man Who Fell to Earth does honor David Bowie by naming each episode in the first season after one his songs.

 

The show does follow a new man who falls to Earth decades after the original played by Chiwetel Ejiofor.  He can spit gold, has four stomachs, and will vomit copious amounts of water if exposed to even small doses of radiation.  He quickly finds Naomie Harris a brilliant scientist who now works cleaning up stuff to support her daughter and sick father to reluctant help him.

 

Watching Ejiofor try to be human, it is hard not to think of Alan Tudyk on Resident Alien, another extraterrestrial who is not great at talking like a normal person and is unable to pick up on the most obvious social.  Though, to be fair, Tudyk did get a head start by watching months of Law and Order reruns before interacting with anyone else.  This show does tease that Ejiofor will eventually learn to act more human with an opening scene where he is doing his best tech billionaire speech.  But the first couple episodes are just Ejiofor being the most extreme case of fish out of water.

 

The show does pick up with the introduction of the Flood siblings (Rob Delaney and Sonya Cassidy) in the third episode.  They are the contentious heirs of a tech company that has ties to Newton.  Jimmi Simpson also shows up as a CIA agent who is on the hunt for both aliens.  While The Man Who Fell to Earth does have the slight edge in the trade for Halo, at the end of the day, this feels like a lackluster trade of a fifth starter for a catcher between two teams barely in the playoff hunt.

 

The Man Who Fell to Earth airs Sundays at 10:00 on Showtime.

Previewing Cypress Hill: Insane in the Brain

 

Showtime continues its HIP HOP 50 series, devoting two years leading up to the 50^th anniversary of the musical genre with two documentaries near and to my heart over the next two week.  Back in 1991, Cypress Hill released their debut album and the very next month, the Geto Boys released their seminal album with the controversial cover, We Can’t Be Stopped.  Premiering on 4/20 (obviously) is Cypress Hill: Insane in the Brain.  Later this year is the premiere of Bushwick Bill: Geto Boy (date TBD).

 

Insane in the Brain comes from photographer and director Estevan Oriol, who was the group’s personal videographer who filmed plenty of footage that has gone unseen until now.  It follows the group from being one of the first to mix Latin music with hip-hop to being the first rap group to play the Reading Festival.  The doc features a firsthand account and archival footage of everyone in the group as well as new interviews from Ice-T, Chuck D, Fred Durst, and, of course, Cheech and Chong.  But maybe the most noteworthy statement in the doc comes from Ruffhouse Records founder Chris Schwartz who absurdly claims, “For all intents and purposes, Philly is the birth place of gangsta rap.”  What?  I am not sure about that.

Cypress Hill: Insane in the Brain premieres tomorrow at 8:00 on Showtime.