Around the Tubes: January 8, 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 Pam & Tommy, Sex Appeal, The Weeknd, James Brown, Foxes, nd Betty White.

- Check out the all-new trailer and key art for Hulu's "Pam & Tommy." The limited series premieres with three episodes on February 2nd. New episodes stream weekly.  Set in the Wild West early days of the Internet, “Pam & Tommy” is based on the incredible true story of the Pamela Anderson (Lily James) and Tommy Lee (Sebastian Stan) sex tape. Stolen from the couple’s home by a disgruntled contractor (Seth Rogen), the video went from underground bootleg-VHS curiosity to full-blown global sensation when it hit the Web in 1997. A love story, crime caper and cautionary tale rolled into one, the eight-part original limited series explores the intersection of privacy, technology and celebrity, tracing the origins of our current Reality TV Era to a stolen tape seen by millions but meant to have an audience of just two.

- Check out the official trailer and key art for the Hulu Original Film "Sex Appeal." The film premieres Friday, January 14th.  Avery Hansen-White doesn’t do things she isn’t excellent at. So when her long-distance boyfriend hints at wanting to take their relationship to the next level, she sets out to master her sexuality, employing her oldest friend, Larson, as a test subject. In this hilarious teen comedy, Avery's study results in the realization that there's more to sex, and love, than mechanics. Relationships require both head and heart.

- The Weeknd has officially dropped his latest album, Dawn FM (XO/Republic Records). The surprise release began with a compelling trailer for the project and the reveal of the album cover and track list earlier in the week. The album, deemed a “sonic experience” by The Weeknd, showcases a unique cast of features from Tyler, the Creator, Lil Wayne, Quincy Jones, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Jim Carrey.  Listen to Dawn FM HERE.  As a part of the rollout, The Weeknd appeared in “103.5 Dawn FM”, a live stream experience which aired exclusively on the Amazon Music channel on Twitch and in the Amazon Music app.

- Celebrating the pioneer of funk James Brown, Urban Legends, a division of UMe, Universal Music Group’s global catalog company, has teamed up with multi-instrumentalist and member of The Roots, Stro Elliot, to create Black & Loud: James Brown Reimagined by Stro Elliot, out February 4, 2022. The album, consisting of ten remixes of classic James Brown songs, will be available digitally on DSPs, physically as an LP on black vinyl, and will also have a clear vinyl color variant available as an e-commerce exclusive on the Urban Legends website HERE. Listen to the first single, "Machine No Make Sex," now HERE.

- Foxes shares her latest single "Absolute," taken from her highly-anticipated upcoming album, The Kick, due for release on February 11 2022 via [PIAS] Recordings. An ode to freedom and late-night euphoria, the disco-infused track was produced by Ghost Culture (Daniel Avery, Kelly Lee Owens).  Discussing the track, Foxes (Louisa Rose Allen) says:  “'Absolute' is about the middle of one of those nights, when everything around you feels perfectly aligned. The people, the sound and the freedom to be exactly who you are.”  Foxes’ first album in over five years, The Kick features recent singles ‘Sky Love’, ‘Dance Magic’ and ‘Sister Ray’. It was written and recorded remotely via zoom during the height of the pandemic, offering a form of escapism. Inspired by the desire for freedom that the world collectively shared over the last 18 months of lockdowns, the near-animalistic desperation to socialise, and a longing to dance again, Louisa naturally pivoted the sonics to feed that escapism and create a record that simultaneously feels close to her euphoric, dancefloor-filling pop roots that brought us hits like ‘Let Go For Tonight’, ‘Youth’ and ‘Body Talk’, while still feeling completely fresh. Unafraid of the art of the well-loved melancholic-banger, lyrically The Kick touches on themes of loss and heartbreak, narrating painful places and soundtracking new beginnings to create an album for the post-pandemic world and a summer of never leaving the party early.

- This SATURDAY, January 8 starting at 9 a.m. ET, Game Show Network will air an 8-hour marathon of MATCH GAME episodes featuring the golden girl of game shows and America's sweetheart, Betty White.  Join us to celebrate a lifetime of laughter and pay tribute to the one and only Betty White.

The Best Movies That I Watched in 2021

 

1.       The Suicide Squad

2.       Black Widow

3.       In the Heights

4.       Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

5.       Freaky

6.       Queenpins

7.       Promising Young Woman

8.       1917

9.       Coco

10.   We Broke Up

11.   Judas and the Black Messiah

12.   Bill & Ted Face the Music

13.   Encanto

14.   Vacation Friends

15.   Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas

16.   Raya and the Last Dragon

17.   Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

18.   The King of Staten Island

19.   The Gentlemen

20.   A Bad Moms Christmas

21.   A Quiet Place Part II

22.   Five Feet Apart

23.   Isle of Dogs

24.   Cruella

25.   Godzilla vs. Kong

The Ten Most Anticipated Events of 2022

 

10.  The End of The Walking Dead (returns 2/20):  It is the end of an era with The Walking Dead ending after eleven seasons.  Though much like the titular characters, the show will live on with a Carol and Daryl spinoff (spoiler alert, they do not die… though I may actually enjoy a show following the zombified duo more than what we will actually get) and of course there is always Fear the Walking Dead and supposedly those Rick movies, so I guess this is not truly the end.

 

9.  Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin:   The original show had possibly the worst plot twist in the history television when Allison’s brother turned out to be Allison’s other brother who was about seven years too young from when they already established the character to be.   The soft reboot with Allison and Mona was pretty bad.  Still, the quick glimpse in the HBO Mas 2022 teaser got me weirdly excited for the third go-around.

 

8.  Single Drunk Female (January 20):  I know nothing about this show, there has not even been a trailer released yet, but based solely on the name, I will be watching.

 

7.  Pam and Tommy (February 2):  When Hulu announce they were going to do a show about the infamous sex tape, I went, huh?  Then they announce Seth Rogen as the dude who obtained the sex tape, and again went, huh?  But I was also intrigued.  This is one of those shows you just hope completely goes off the rails.  Though I really hope we do not have to see how the Winter Soldier steers a boat. 

 

6.  Problematic Sporting Events (Maybe?):  Nothing I love more than international sporting events and we will be getting two this year… maybe.  With the Omicron variant wreaking havoc all over the world, it seems like the Winter Olympics may follow the Summer’s lead and postpone a year (the NHL already pulled out their players).  Hopefully things will be better by summer for the Men’s World Cup.  Oh wait, they pushed that to the late fall because some shady regime in Qatar, where it hits triple digits in the summer, presented the highest bribe and they proceed to have essentially slave labor build the soccer stadiums.    The Winter Olympics are just as problematics because it is being held in China who has a long history of human rights violations.  Sigh.  But hey, maybe both events will be canceled, but with money to be made and them being held in places that do not care about the well-being of people, probably not.

 

5.  The Next Game of Thrones (Maybe?):  Ever since Games of Thrones was winding down, networks and streaming serves have been on the lookout for that elusive next Game of Thrones.  There are a few contenders coming out.  Here are a few ranked from least likely to most likely.  Halo was supposed to be Showtime’s foray into the attempted Game of Thrones market but their corporate daddy gave that to Paramount+ (Showtime did get The Man Who Fell to Earth, which I am pretty confident in saying will not be the next Game of Thrones).  While this is huge IP, space stories do seems to have a ceiling and The Mount is near the bottom of the most subscribers’ power ranking.

Next up is Lord of the Rings which is one of the biggest IP names out that that spawn two very successful trilogies earlier this century.  Amazon has the big pocket and a large subscriber base, but as Apple has shown with Foundation, shelling out a lot of money on IP alone will buy you the next Game of Thrones.  Plus while a lot of people subscribe to Prime, there also seems to be a lot of people that do not realize Prime Video comes with that two day free shipping.

So the most likely next Game of Thrones will be… Game of Thrones.  After spending a lot of money on a Pilot that got scrapped, HBO went with another story and we will likely be getting House of the Dragon this year.  But it is not guaranteed it will do as well as the original show.  House of the Dragon will have to win over a lot of fans who were disappointed with the choppy final season and pretty bad finale.  But on the bright side, this show will not have to hope George R.R. Martin finishes the books before the get to that part of the story

 

4.  Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, More Star Wars and Marvel Shows on the Ploose:  I will be watching all the shows they release but the MCU seems to be having diminishing returns.  The Mandalorian was great, but will Star Wars fatigue set in when they start pumping out more shows too?  I was fairly meh on the first episode of the Book of Boba Fett.  Here is my power raking of the shows that are likely coming to the Ploose this year: 

1)      Obi-Wan Kenobi

2)      Ms. Marvel

3)      Secret Invasion

4)      Andor

5)      Moon Knight

6)      She-Hulk

 

3.  Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (December 16) and Thor: Love and Thunder (July 8):  While superhero fatigue is setting in, the two goofier heroes of their respective cinematic universes and thus stared in some of the more entertaining movies.

 

2.  The Woman in the House across the Street from the Girl in the Window (January 29):  Now there is a title.  But all I need to know is the series is starring Kristen Bell so I may have to re-subscribe to Netflix for the first time in a while.

 

1.  The Season Finale of Yellowjackets (January 15):  Last episode was wild, Laura Lee’s plane blew up and it seems like Adam turned out to be the blackmailer, which could mean he could be adult Javi.  Of course after Van survived being mauled by wolf, I half expect Laura Lee to crawl out of the lake at the start of next episode.  Okay, I have actually seen the next episode and no spoilers, but there is a very big reveal and a popular Reddit theory gets vindicated.  Okay, one spoiler: the girls butcher a Seal.  No spoilers for the finale, mostly because I have not seen it.  But considering how bat-shirt crazy things have been I am sure there will a few more jaw dropping moment for the last episode.  It looks like the girls will be going to a reunion.  I have to image we finally learn of some of the other crash survivor that made it to middle age.  But will we see the presumed dead Jackie like I have been predicting all season?  Will we learn of anyone else who is with Misty during the dining scene from the premiere?  Oh, and the finale is entitled “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi” or “the glory of the world” in Latin, a phrase spoken when anointing a new Pope.  One has to assume a new leader will be coroneted during the earlier timeline.  Yeah, this is going to be wild.  And since the show was already been renewed, we may get more than three episodes this year.

 

Here is everything else I will be watching while trying to stay warm this winter:

Mondays

8:00 – The Neighborhood (CBS, January 3)

9:00 – Snowpiercer (TNT, January 24)

 

Tuesdays

How I Met Your Father (Hulu, January 18)

Dollface (Hulu, February 11)

8:00 – Young Rock (NBC, March 15)

8:30 – Mr. Mayor (NBC, March 15)

9:00 – Abbott Elementary (ABC, January 4)

9:30 – Black’ish (ABC, January 4)

 

Wednesday

The Book of Boba Fett (Disney+, already started)

Pam and Tommy (Hulu, February 2)

8:00 - The Goldbergs (ABC, January 5)

8:30 - The Wonder Years (ABC, January 5)

 

Thursdays

Peacemaker (HBO Max, January 13)

The Dropout (Hulu, March 3)

8:00 – The Blacklist (NBC, January 6)

9:00 – Ghosts (CBS, January 6)

9:30 - B Positive (CBS, January 6)

9:30 – Pivoting (Fox, preview January 9, regular timeslot premiere January 13)

10:00 – Grown’ish (Freeform, January 24)

10:30 – Single Drunk Female (Freeform, January 20 back to back episode starting at 10:00 the first week)

 

Fridays

Search Party (HBO Max, January 7)

2022 Winter Olympics (NBC, February 4)

8:00 – The Blacklist (NBC, February 25)

 

Sundays

8:00 – Killing Eve (BBC America, February 27)

9:00 – Billions (Showtime, January 23)

9:00 – The Walking Dead (AMC, February 20)

9:00 – Fear the Walking Dead (AMC, april 17)

10:00 - The Righteous Gemstones (HBO, January 9)

10:00 – Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber (Showtime, February 27)

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

 

Dexter: New Blood:  Uh oh, Dexter breaking his code once again leaving a lot of DNA in the campground.  There is a reason why he does his kills in plastic, which is going to be a lot to clean up.  I wonder if he shows Harrison the body and how to clean it up next week.  Then his girlfriend is on his case linking him to two needle pricks.  Will they dust the drug maker’s house for prints now?  The last time Dexter broke his code; he broke into dude’s house, and then put his gloves on.  His prints should still be on the window.  But what will she do with the information about the pricks?  Is Dexter going to have to move again?  Maybe head back to a warmer climate.

 

Claws:  So Desna is already on the out with no longer Quiet Ann, things seem to be fracturing with Jennifer.  Is that going to be this season, Desna just becoming estranged from everyone on the show and then the inevitable reunion for the finale? 

 

Yellowjackets:  Oh wow, I did not have Van very high on my who will die first power ranking.  Actually that list was just Coach Ben and no one else.  But what is with Tai sleepwalking up trees?  Is this where it started and that traumatic experience has caused her to do it again?  And how did Tai get the totem that Lottie gave to Van?  Is the totem how Tai got safely into the tree to avoid the wold attack?

 

What I found most interesting was the talk in the car when Natalie was talking about how everyone did some bad things, Shauna disagreed and she should not drag everyone into her “pit of despaired.”  Interesting choice of words because we know there was a literal pit out in the Canadian wilderness.  Was Shauna not part of that whole thing?  I wonder if there will be a split in the groups between the cannibals and non-cannibals.  Could Nat be part of the pit group and Shauna part of a different group?  Then could Shauna and Jackie be part of two different groups because that will be a rough relationship going forward?  How do you read someone else’s diary?  Bad form Jackie.  

 

Back in present day, Misty is going full Citizen Detective by any means necessary in this week’s Misty psychopath watch.  So the reporter says that Travis’ back account was emptied shortly after he died.  That has to be Javi.  Who else could do it but a family member?  Unless, maybe, the account was not that big and Nat had his information.  Though the show has been very stingy up to this point with who is still alive outside the four main women and the already dead Travis.

 

Now it is time for my favorite part of the show: fashion watch.  So, not only did Jackie bring one argyle sweater vest, she brought multiple sweater vests to a soccer tournament for no apparent reason.  Not to be out down Mari, who seemly got more screen time this week than the previous seven episodes combined, went full eighties prep school villain wearing a polo shirt with a sweater wrapped around her neck.  Awesome.  Then poor Van, dies in a Coed Naked Soccer shirt.  How did our parents actually let us wear those, or the Big Johnson shirts (though I was not allowed to get the Big Johnson “Liquor in the front, poker in the back” shirt), back then?

 

The Book of Boba Fett:  Well that premiere left me feeling… whelmed,  I realized fairly early, that I do not really care that much about Boba’s backstory.  I enjoyed the old PlayStation 2 game, but do not really see it.  Nor do I care that much about the Tuscan Raiders stuff though it seems like we will be getting a duel timeline show for at least another episode or more.  Sigh.  Maybe we will see Obi-Wan at some point to set up his series.    

 

The Challenge: All-Stars: It is too bad Jodi did not order a milkshake so Ayanna could have gone full Daniel Plainview and tell Jodi she drinks her milkshake, she drinks it up.  But I wonder just how long this challenge took. Having to run a mile while remembering things had to take quite a few trips.

The 100 Best Songs of 2021

1. Funeral - Maisie Peters feat. James Bay 

2. Hate Myself - dodie 

3. drivers license - Olivia Rodrigo 

4. doomsday - Lizzy McAlpine 

5. Elevator Boots - Counting Crows 

6. jealousy, jealousy - Olivia Rodrigo 

7. Making a Fire - Foo Fighters 

8. good 4 u - Olivia Rodrigo 

9. How Not To Drown – CHVRCHES feat. Robert Smith 

10. Broken Horses - Brandi Carlile 

11. Like a Ship - Leon Bridges and Keite Young 

12. Wilder Days - Morgan Wade 

13. John Hughes Movie - Maisie Peters 

14. A-O-K - Tai Verdes 

15. Elvis Song - Maisie Peters 

16. Steam - Leon Bridges 

17. deja vu - Olivia Rodrigo 

18. Volcano - Maisie Peters 

19. A.M. RADIO - The Lumineers 

20. Circles - Wyn Starks 

21. brutal - Olivia Rodrigo 

22. Renegade - Big Red Machine feat. Taylor Swift 

23. Hypotheticals - Lake Street Dive 

24. Dried Up River - The Lone Bellow 

25. Redemption - Nathaniel Rateliff 

26. justified - Kacey Musgraves 

27. Better Man - Taylor Swift 

28. For Your Consideration - Maggie Rose 

29. Harshest Critic - Allison Ponthier 

30. What You Say - Cold War Kids 

31. Diamond Studded Shoes - Yola 

32. Halfway - Mimi Webb 

33. Dustland - The Killers feat. Bruce Springsteen 

34. Stand For Myself - Yola 

35. Vermillion Park - Emily Wolfe 

36. All Too Well (10 Minute Version) - Taylor Swift 

37. Valentine - Snail Mail 

38. Open up the Heavens - Jade Bird 

39. BIG SHOT - The Lumineers 

40. Shapeshifter - Alessia Cara 

41. Silk Chiffon – MUNA feat. Phoebe Bridgers 

42. Excuses - Audrey Mika 

43. rubberband - Tate McRae 

44. Bad Posture - Abby Anderson 

45. Drunk (And I Don't Wanna Go Home) - Elle King and Miranda Lambert 

46. The War Inside - Tom Morello feat. Chris Stapleton 

47. Back in Ohio - Lucero 

48. Last Resort - Natalie Hemby 

49. You Signed Up For This - Maisie Peters 

50. Woman You Got - Maddie & Tae 

51. Dancer - Léon 

52. Bath Salts – DMX feat. JAY-Z & Nas 

53. Now is the Time - Jade Bird 

54. Crawling Kingsnake - The Black Keys 

55. Last Day on Earth - beabadoobee 

56. Feels Like - Gracie Abrams 

57.BRIGHTSIDE - The Lumineers 

58. Solar Power - Lorde 

59. The Bottom - Gracie Abrams 

60. simple times - Kacey Musgraves 

61. bad ones - Tate McRae 

62. I Don't Live Here Anymore - The War on Drugs feat. Lucius 

63. wish i loved you in the 90s - Tate McRae 

64. Seventeen - Léon 

65. Hush Money - Lake Street Dive 

66. Not Dead Yet - Lord Huron 

67. Scarlett - Holly Humberstone 

68. Psycho - Maisie Peters 

69. Mess It Up - Gracie Abrams 

70. no body, no crime - Taylor Swift feat. HAIM 

71. Motorbike - Leon Bridges 

72. Enter Sandman - Alessia Cara and The Warning 

73. Beggin' - Måneskin 

74. Ain’t Lookin’ - The Wild Feathers 

75. Phoenix - Big Red Machine feat. Fleet Foxes & Anaïs Mitchell 

76. Last Train Home - John Mayer 

77. breadwinner - Kacey Musgraves 

78. Friendly Fire - Holly Humberstone 

79. Cold Heart (PNAU Remix) - Elton John and Dua Lipa 

80. Shouldn't Matter but It Does - John Mayer 

81. Oh My God - Adele 

82. I Bet You Think About Me - Taylor Swift feat. Chris Stapleton 

83. coney island - Taylor Swift feat. The National 

84. Leave The Door Open - Silk Sonic 

85. Sugar and Spice - Jocelyn & Chris Arndt 

86. Poor Boy a Long Way From Home - The Black Keys 

87. Family Farm - The Hold Steady 

88. Cologne - beabadoobee 

89. Girl From Rio - Anitta 

90. Next - Olivia Holt 

91. Skate - Silk Sonic 

92. It’s time to go - Taylor Swift 

93. Bed Head - Manchester Orchestra

94. How Low - Heartless Bastards 

95. Overpass Grafitti - Ed Sheeran 

96. Backburner - Maia Sharp 

97. If I Was a Cowboy - Miranda Lambert 

98. Witchoo - Durand Jones & The Indications, Aaron Frazer 

99. We're Good - Dua Lipa 

100. Bad Habits - Ed Sheeran

The Twenty-Five Best Music Videos of 2021

1. good 4 u - Olivia Rodrigo 

2. All Too Well (10 Minute Version) - Taylor Swift 

3. John Hughes Movie - Maisie Peters 

4. deja vu - Olivia Rodrigo 

5. I Bet You Think About Me - Taylor Swift feat. Chris Stapleton 

6. Love Dies Young - Foo Fighters 

7. Popular - Pom Pom Squad feat. Matthew Caws of Nada Surf 

8. Psycho - Maisie Peters 

9. Doomsday - Lizzy McAlpine 

10. brutal - Olivia Rodrigo 

11. Shivers - Ed Sheeran 

12. Solar Power - Lorde 

13. simple times - Kacey Musgraves 

14. A-O-K - Tai Verdes 

15. Hate Myself - dodie 

16. Silk Chiffon – MUNA feat. Phoebe Bridgers 

17. Survivor - Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats 

18. Monday - The Regrettes 

19. Bad Habits - Ed Sheeran 

20. Mood Ring - Lorde 

21. Woman You Got - Maddie and Tae 

22. justified - Kacey Musgraves 

23. Fallen Fruit - Lorde 

24. drivers license - Olivia Rodrigo 

25. Love Is Not Enough - Ashe

57 Channels and Only This Is On: December 26, 2021

 

Dexter: New Blood:  So Kurt got off on a technicality; I guess Dexter will have to kill him.  Though I wonder if the big twist this season is that Dexter continues to keep up his non-killing ways (well, aside for Kurt’s kid and the drug dealer) and finds a way to catch Kurt red-handed.  Or maybe Harrison will do the killing for Dexter.  Dexter really needs to have a sit down with that kid sooner than later.

 

But just how does Kurt know Dexter killed his kid?   I questioned just how drunk Kurt was that night when Dexter took him home shortly after Dexter cremated the kid and Kurt claimed his son called him.  Did Kurt see him do it?  If so, why not turn Dexter in?  If he lied about the call to keep the police from searching the caves where he hid his victim, turning Dexter in would have stopped the search too.

 

Claws:  The last episode aired in August of 2019 and that “Previously On” did nothing to help remember what happened.  Roller is gone?  Okay, do not remember why.  Desna had a casino?  I guess I vaguely remember getting an inheritance from the dude who died on their wedding night but do not really remember a casino.  And was Quiet Ann always this chatty?  This is going to be a rough season to get through.But I guess it will be quick if they continue to do two episodes a week.

 

Yellowjackets:  So, Lottie can see into the future.  Cool.  Was all that talking about blood in French last week tied to the lady issues everyone was having or something else?  And that hallway and stairs, is that somewhere she is going to go at some point or just a manifestation of being baptized?  It seems like she can see way into the future because she seemingly saw Tai in the tree eating dirt twenty-five years later.  So, Tai is the person in the tree her kid is seeing?

 

But finally, young Tai is the first to think, hey, we are in the Canadian wilderness, all we have to do is walk south until we hit civilization.  Seriously, they are athletic teens, should not that be too hard.  We will have to wait and see if anyone joins her, or if someone stops her (which will likely happen because they do not get rescued for nineteen months).   But when she talked about winter coming soon, it got me wondering; shouldn’t it be pretty cold by now?  The plane had to crash around late November maybe early December.  It gets pretty cold here in Ohio around Thanksgiving and that is with the global warming.  Higher north it gets colder and the days are shorter.  More poetic license I guess.

 

Misty psycho watch this week:  She steals drugs from works, uses them to drug Tai’s fixer who was posing as a reporter to see if anyone else talked, and is now keeping her chained up in her basement (oh, and younger Misty thinks the coach is her secret boyfriend).  Awesome.  Does the fixer spill the beans on Taissa?  And then does Misty set her free after that?  But we did get confirmation that there are other survivor than the main four (and Travis) but they still keep it extremely vague who survived. 

 

Then Shauna has a disturbing dinner with Jackie’s parents.  I am not sure what was more awkward, Shauna admitting she hates her kid (who we got confirmation is 16, which means she was born in 2005; the girls should have been rescued by July 1998; so she is not Shauna’s wilderness baby; unless they are in some weird dimension where time moves differently… hey Lottie can see into the future) or Jeff admitted he was forking Shauna while dating Jackie.  Then Shauna sees Jackie again and Jackie tells Shauna it was not her fault.  What is not her fault?  My first thought was hooking up with Jeff while they were dating.  But then I thought what if she was talking about something that happened in Canada, possibly how she died.  Though I am still clinging to my theory Jackie and Shauna’s kid are sending the postcards.

 

Hawkeye:  The finale was enjoyable mostly because Hailee Stienfeld and Florence Pugh are just a delight (give them a spin-off) but goodness, you really need to turn off your brain to get through it.  I still do not get why Maya was so quick to trust Clint’s word and just what happen to her father.  I am kind of unclear of who killed him.  It seems like he did, but I do not understand Kingpin and Kazi’s involvement.  Is all that going to be resolved in the Echo spin-off?  Though Kazi is dead and Echo shot Kingpin (though he did take an arrow to the chest earlier so maybe he survived by some silly comic book logic).

 

Okay, Clint’s wife was an agent of SHIELD, but why was the watch so important and why did Kingpin want it?  I never got why Yelena was so mad at Clint.  She knew of Clint and Nat’s relationship, but Valentina just telling het Clint killed her sister was enough for her.  Huh?  No how or why, she is ready to kill someone that she knew was her sister’s friend just like that made no sense.  With that said, give me a Kate / Yelena show next Christmas.

 

The Real World Homecoming: Los Angeles: Oh hey, an Eric Neis sighting.  Nice to give him some time since he could not be at his reunion. But Tami missed out, that trip to Joshua Tree seemed much nicer than the first one especially those castle suites.

 

The Challenge: All-Stars: I am no medical doctor, but declaring a pregnant woman not medically cleared to compete seems kind of sexist.  Serena Williams won the Australian Open at 20 week, seems like someone in the first trimester would be find.  How about letting the expecting mother decide?  Melissa competed while pregnant for a final a few seasons back and the Senior Tour final did not seem that bad last season.  A little run up a mountain seems like it would be good for an expecting mother.  Ugg, I finally got Casey back on my television screen and now she might not be bac for a while (though there have been a few mothers with very young children on this first two seasons so maybe she could be back as soon as season four… hey, they only film for two weeks).  But poor Cohutta. Laterian loses his partner last week and was able to fight to stay in and steal Tyler’s partner but was not awarded the same chance this week.  At least we was able to go out on a great line, without missing a beat, saying, “It’s not mine.”

Around the Tubes: December 24, 2021

  

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting.  This post includes blurbs on  The Legend of Vox Machina, Taylor Swift, Ben Harper, The Binge, and We Need to Talk about Cosby.

- Prime Video kicks off the holiday season with a special announcement: The Legend of Vox Machina, an upcoming adult animated fantasy-adventure series from Critical Role and Titmouse, will now premiere on January 28, 2022 in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide. Along with the new premiere date, Prime Video released an exciting new clip and image from the series. 

- Following their historic releases, Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version) and Fearless (Taylor’s Version) show no signs of slowing down with total consumption of each album moving over 2 Million album equivalents globally.  Since its release, Red (Taylor’s Version) has moved over 1 Million album equivalents in the U.S. alone, with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) on track to do the same this month.  Named the “No.1 Greatest Pop Star of 2021” by Billboard, Taylor caused a global media storm with the release of Red (Taylor’s Version) last month.  Red (Taylor’s Version) marked Taylor’s 10th album to move over 1 Million album equivalents globally during its release week, adding a brilliant new chapter to her legacy. The release saw Taylor becoming the first and only artist to simultaneously debut atop the Billboard 200 and Billboard Hot 100 chart three times, and in less than 16 months! It also sent 26 songs from its release onto the Billboard Hot 100, setting a new record for the most simultaneously charted Hot 100 entries among women.

- For this holiday season musician, producer and label founder Ben Harper and his Mad Bunny records present Sonic Chapters Volume 1, which will begin streaming December 29, 2021 exclusively on youtube.com/relixchannel.  Harper curated and assembled these sweet and powerful performances featuring Hey! King, Birdthrower, Harris, The Cush and Jake Etheridge, recorded in these artists’ homes, and rehearsal spaces. Harper closes the show with an acoustic performance filmed at his family owned Folk Music Center in Claremont, California.  

- Hulu has greenlit the next installment in The Binge franchise, a raunchy holiday feature titled The Binge 2: It’s A Wonderful Binge..  Jordan VanDina, the screenwriter behind The Binge for Hulu and American High, has been tapped to direct the feature from an original script he wrote. This marks VanDina’s feature directorial debut, and continues American High’s mission to create unique opportunities for first-time filmmakers.

- SHOWTIME Documentary Films announced WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT COSBY, a four-part docuseries from Emmy-winning director W. Kamau Bell (United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell) that offers an in-depth look at the revolutionary career and personal descent of Bill Cosby. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT COSBY will screen at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, ahead of its SHOWTIME premiere on Sunday, January 30 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. All episodes will be available across all SHOWTIME streaming and VOD platforms on January 30. To watch and share the trailer, visit: https://youtu.be/raCuh_Q6Ve8.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: December 19, 2021

 

Dexter: New Blood:  There was a moment this episode where I thought to myself, is Dexter going to kill the podcaster or is Kurt going to be the one.  Kurt seemingly was going to try and it was surprisingly Dexter who was the one who saved her.  Dexter did get some vital information on the ride home as he figured out it was not her that tipped Angela off to his real name.  But will Dexter ever find out it was her daughter via his son as to how that information got out. 

 

But it looks like Angela will not stay mad very as she now needs Dexter.  My first thought it was for revenge after finding her friend, but obviously she will want him to use his forensic expertise despite telling her he killed Dexter to get away from that life. It seems obvious to assume Kurt killed her and put her body there, but we only saw Angela find the one body and clearly Kurt killed more.  Plus that passageway seemed fairly tight for the two relatively skinny lawmen and Kurt is a bit bigger.  Though fifteen years ago, I guess Kurt could have been a bit thinner and the reason why there was only the one body is Kurt stopped skipping meals.  But where are the other bodies?  It looked like he was trying to preserve the one he shot through the eye.

 

Yellowjackets:  The episode critics received were named after nineties pop culture moments (do not ask me why Showtime changed them to more generic titles for the official release).  This episode was entitled “Blood Sugar Sex Magic” after the Red Hot Chili Peppers album.  We got a lot of the first and second, not much of the third.  The fourth… well, that is still debatable I guess.  Obviously it was Halloween, but just how real was the “magic” in the earlier timeline?  Why would Shauna spin the knife in an infinity sign on purpose when asked if they would survive?  And Lottie could have been possessed or is just straight up losing it (or possibly both)?  Misty poisoning the coach because she likes him is up there with destroying the black box on the psycho level.  Not to mention, turning off a sick person’s machine just to scare kids.

 

So was giving Nat the owl so she could spy on her?  It certainly seems like she could be behind the postcards, but how would she have killed Travis and draw the signals if she was with Nat the whole time, so I think she really is just doing her best Veronica Mars impersonation.  It also seems like they confirmed Jackie’s death if her parents were giving Shauna her jersey.  We also got confirmation that Shauna is pregnant, but there is no way that could be Callie… could it?  The baby would be born in 1997 which would make the kid twenty-four, but Callie is clearly a teenager, she does have a college fund and a curfew.  So what happens to the kid?  I have stated before that I think there is still a chance Jackie is alive, what if she stole the kid and have been living in the Canadian wilderness this whole time and are working as a team to torment the survivors?  Could one of them be the woman in the window the kid sees?

  

Hawkeye:  I enjoyed Florence Pugh in the Black Widow movie but that kitchen scene was way too far over the top.  I was surprised that it turned out that Clint was the one that killed Echo’s dad.  Sure we know Clint went on a murderous rampage as Ronin during The Blip, but I thought there was going to be a twist where the real big bad of the show pretended to be Ronin to kill off her dad.  The story of what happened that night still seems a little fuzzy maybe there will be a twist in the finale.  But we did learn who the real big bad of this season was and it is a really big dude, Kate’s mom hired Yelena to kill Clint and is working with Kingpin.  Okay, not the biggest reveal, everyone guessed that is who Uncle was (it was either Kingpin or Mephisto) back when we first learned of him.

 

Survivor:  I have long joked that Erika would win this season ever since she broke the Turn Back Time Hourglass because I figured even if she lost; she would break the hourglass again until she won.  This was a joke because she seemed fairly insignificant coming out of the merge.  They spent so much time of the Black People alliance, and yet under-edited when an actual minority won, and the first female of an all newbie season since Michele.

 

But my favorite part of the finale was just how delusional Xander was.  The befuddled look on the jury’s face when Xander was explaining how they did not respect Erika was hilarious.  Then he actually saves Erika so he did not want Erika to have some hero moment by wining fire making and she still almost swept the votes save a pity vote from Danny to his close ally DeShawn.  I do not remember a time someone went into Final Tribal that confident and ended up not getting one vote.  Russell maybe.

 

The Challenge: Spies, Lies, and Allies: Way to reward the cell that lost by letting them pick anyone to be teammates with in the final leg of the final.  Of course Kacee and Kyle were going to pick CT and Tori respectively.  Poor Devin and Emy were then stuck with each other.  Granted, they probably deserve each other.

 

The Challenge: All-Stars: Ooof, poor Tyler, gets passed over by Casey, who is not the strongest competitor this season, being stuck with one of the few weaker females Jasmine, loses because of her, but because of Kendal not being medically cleared, only him, not Jasmine has to compete.  You could actually see his arm wrapped during his confessional, so you could tell things would not go well for him during elimination.  It may be time to retire Pole Wrestling before Laterrian breaks someone’s hip.

 

Now our teams are set for the rest of the season and the Jodi/Brad duo seems like the team to beat.  The only team that could have matched them was Laterrian and Kendal but replace Kendal with Jasmine and that team looks much weaker.  Joanna was the highest placing female last season so maybe she and MJ could be a dark horse.  Or maybe there will be more Brittany Spears trivia so Casey and Cohutta can dominate.

 

It was weird hearing people talk about how close they were to the finals since there had only been four weeks of eliminations up to this point but twelve contestants made the finals last season.  After this week’s elimination, there are fourteen people left so if they do the same, there would only be one more elimination before the finale.

 

Big Sky:  I am supposed to case Ronald killed Cassie’s dad?  We have barely seen him.  But it is long time past Ronald’s expiration date.  The drug cartel storyline is much more interesting.