Around the Tubes: December 21, 2019

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 High Fidelity, The Morning Show, Twin, Guordan Banks, Keb’ Mo’, The Score, BENEE, Discogs, Freakonomics Radio, Into the Dark, Midnight Traveler, The L Word: Generation Q, Showtime Movie Premieres, and Noticias Telemundo.

- A departure from Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel and beloved 2000 film, Hulu’s High Fidelity centers on Rob (Zoë Kravitz, who also serves as an executive producer), a female record store owner in the rapidly gentrified neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn who revisits past relationships through music and pop culture, while trying to get over her one true love. High Fidelity also stars Da’Vine Joy Randolph, David H. Holmes, Jake Lacy, and Kingsley Ben-Adir.


- The Morning Show: SEASON FINALE - Debuted Friday, December 20. In the season finale, “The Interview,” The Morning Show faces a day of reckoning as a plan to upend the power structure at UBA is set in motion.

- What would you do for an identical twin you hadn't seen in 15 years? Would you assume his very different life following a tragic accident? That's but one of the pressing questions raised in TWIN, an eagerly-anticipated, suspense-filled limited series from Norway starring "Game of Thrones" Kristofer Hivju (Wildlings leader Tormund Giantsbane), and making its North American streaming premiere on MHZ Choice this February.

- Getting into the spirit of the season, critically acclaimed R&B sensation Guordan Banks releases his first-ever holiday EP, Christmas On The Vinyl. Get it HERE. On the five-song project, he brings soul and shine to classics such as “Oh Holy Night,” “Let Us Adore Him,” and “Silent Night 3000.” Check out the full tracklisting below.

- Following the release of the tongue-in-cheek tune and music video, “Christmas Is Annoying,” (watch here) newly GRAMMY®-nominated Americana artist Keb’ Mo’ now embraces the holiday season in his new music video for “Merry Merry Christmas.” Having premiered via PASTE.com, watch Keb’ spice things up at a small-town bar as he wins over the crowd with his infectious smile and unrivaled guitar dexterities. Watch the music video here: found.ee/KebMo_MerryMerryVideo.

- Gold-certified and critically acclaimed LA-based, New York-born rock band The Score—Eddie Anthony and Edan Dover—have unleashed a brand new single entitled “Bulletproof” featuring Xylø. Check out “Bulletproof” ft Xylø HERE via Republic Records. The song’s release comes in tandem with the release of Netflix’s highly anticipated new film 6 Underground starring Ryan Reynolds and directed by Michael Bay. “Bulletproof” is featured as the end title song in the film and three additional songs from The Score are also featured including “Glory,” “Legend” and “The Fear.” 6 Underground is in select theaters now and on Netflix.

- 19-year-old indie pop sensation BENEE drops the video for her song “Blu,” taken from her critically acclaimed five-track EP STELLA & STEVE—watch HERE! On the inspiration behind the video, directed by fellow New Zealander Charlotte Evans, BENEE says, “We filmed in this awesome, rundown, old theatre called Crystal Palace in Auckland. I wanted the video to have a pretty but slightly off vibe about it. The dress was made by a crazy talented designer called Olli, and the rabbit suit found secondhand did a good job of makin things feel weird.”

- Discogs, the leading online physical music exchange, now enables users to preview millions of songs through the Discogs App. As of today, the Discogs iOS and Android apps integrate with Apple Music. Together with the streaming giant, Discogs hopes to provide users with a service that will make their experience in the Discogs App more complete. Users can now stream music previews from albums directly with automatic track pairing through Apple Music API. Until now, the Discogs Community has been able to manually pair YouTube videos with Master Releases on Discogs. While this has been a great feature for visitors seeking to listen to music directly on our platform, Discogs is making discoverability even better. Thanks to the Apple Music integration you’ll be able to listen to those releases directly on Discogs without waiting for a playlist to be created.

- Back in January, a little-known presidential candidate with just 27,000 Twitter followers appeared on Freakonomics Radio, one of the most popular podcasts in the country. Today, that candidate has more than a million followers and a slot in the most selective Democratic debate. And he returns to Freakonomics Radio, in an interview conducted last week from the campaign trail in Iowa. On the new episode, Andrew Yang explains why he thinks his ideas have taken off and offers some thoughts he hasn't said elsewhere, including his strategy for tonight's debate and what he thinks the Democratic Party is getting wrong — plus a colorful hypothetical imagining how he'd respond if Trump asked him to be his vice president. The full episode is available now here and on all podcast apps.

- Count down to Into the Dark's New Year's episode, Midnight Kiss, with the NEW TRAILER! In the horror anthology's newest installment, a group of longtime gay best friends head to a beautiful desert home to celebrate New Year's Eve. Relationships are put to the test and truths are revealed as the night turns into a fight for survival.


- The award-winning documentary feature Midnight Traveler, directed by Hassan Fazili, a nominee for the IFP Gotham Awards for Best Documentary, will have its national television debut on PBS television series POV on Monday, December 30, 2019 at 10 PM (check local listings). The film, which will also be available to stream at POV.org, was recently named on the Features Shortlist for the 35th Annual IDA Documentary Awards. Midnight Traveler had its world premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. POV is in its 32nd Season.

- Hot on the heels of being named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year, two-time World Cup-winning U.S. women’s soccer star and co-captain Megan Rapinoe will guest star on The L Word: Generation Q this Sunday, December 22 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Rapinoe will play herself as a guest on Alice’s (Leisha Hailey) feminist-focused talk show.

- Showtime announced that it will air the television premieres of Five Feet Apart on Monday, December 30 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, On the Basis of Sex starring Oscar® nominee Felicity Jones and Golden Globe® nominee Armie Hammer on Wednesday, January 1 at 9 p.m. ET/PT and The Upside starring Kevin Hart and Oscar nominee Bryan Cranston on Saturday, January 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

- Congresswomen Verónica Escobar (D-TX), Sylvia García (D-TX), and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-FL) granted their first-ever joint exclusive interview to Noticias Telemundo’s Washington, D.C. Senior Correspondent Cristina Londoño. The Democratic Representatives discussed President Trump’s impeachment a day after the historic vote. Highlights of the interview will air today Noticias Telemundo at 6:30 pm / 5:30 CT and the full interview will be available for streaming on NoticiasTelemundo.com and the Noticias Telemundo properties on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Next some interview highlights: “It was a tragedy, because we have a President for whom the constitution is nothing, and for us, it is all.”* - Verónica Escobar (D-TX).

57 Channels and Only This Is On: December 15, 2019

Ray Donovan: So we are normalizing herpes now? Okay. But I hope that Bunchy throwing something away at the hospital was a sign he is not going to go with the white supremacist. Dude does have a black brother and all. So Mickey went to some tropical place only to return to New York to set up some time share scam? Please just put, and keep this guy in prison or kill him off.

Supergirl/Crisis on Infinite Earths: Of wow, they got Lucifer Morningstar and Arli$$. That was pretty shocking. Although I am not sure we needed a full minute on the Birds of Prey Earth. The Lucifer was somewhat shocking. I did read on I believe Men’s Health of all places that he would be included but I was not really going to believe television gossip I see on Men’s Health.

Makes me wonder who else will show up. Wonder Woman’s Linda Carter and Lois and Clark’s Teri Hatcher have both already appeared in previous seasons of Supergirl, and goodness knows the crossover needs a Wonder Woman presence because it is laughable in all the Earths there is not one. Granted, we did see Titans which had Wonder Girl who referenced Diana so there is definitely at least one Wonder Woman. Kind of an oversite of Harbinger who supposedly rounded up the greatest Superheroes of the multiverse. And are there no Batmen under fifty? We saw a broken down (and kind of gay) Batman of another Earth who apparel looks like Earth 1’s Batman. Then there is Michael Keaton and Sir Jorah Mormont. The Supermen are no spring chickens, but all three we saw are under fifty. There was a rumor the Gotham Batman may show up but he is on the other end of the age spectrum of being two young but that was a website I trust even less than Men’s Heath for my TV news.

So we got two seconds on the Titans’ Earth. I wonder if we will get a Doom Patrol sighting. I am mostly curious to see if they place that show on the Titans Earth or confirm what we were watching was on a slightly different Earth. There was some casting change and they gave Negative Man a completely different attitude from the Titans episode. The also completely ignored Beast Boy who has been living with them for a while and the only Titans reference was a magazine article.

Okay, fun fan service aside, that third episode was confusing. I have no idea what that whole treadmill thing was about and the Green Arrow in purgatory was a bit confusing too? So Olivier is giving up live to become the new Spectre. And the old one just came out of nowhere. And just how did they come up with those paragons? With Lex Luther, that makes four of the seven from Supergirl. I missed why Martian Manhunter was one because that dude just disappeared. Then one is an Asian scientist with no powers because… um, diversity? The only other person of color was a green dude from Mars (um, if all the other Earths are now gone, are all the Mars gone too?). I hope the last two episodes make sence because the crossover is almost as confusing as the actual comic it was based on.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Watchmen: Here is the problem with beings that are too powerful, I am left wondering why Dr. Manhattan did not zap him and Angela out of there instead of staying and fighting when he knew how that was going to end with him being zapped with the teleporter? He just zapped his kids a couple minutes earlier. But at least we got conformation of Ozymandias was put in his place by Dr. Manhattan but not a prison like most people thought but actually but as reward. Granted, I suspect that Dr. Manhattan knew that it would not be viewed as paradise very long.

Shameless: In ten seasons, it is kind of surprising they have not done the character was mad that they were the only one not molested by the town pervert before. Or maybe they did and I already forgot about it. Really after ten seasons, it is surprising the writers have not run out of messed up storylines yet.

Mr. Robot: Where has Bobby Canivalle been all this time? I have spent most of the season assuming he was dead. Kind of the same for the rapper, I definitely forgot he switched sides. Unless that was a big surprise. But what a silly rom-com ending except the two lovebirds missed each other. This show is really overthinking everything this season.
You can download Mr. Robot: on iTunes.

His Dark Materials: So are they not going to get the Daemons that were in the cages in hopes of maybe someday reuniting them with their humans?

Castle Rock: Well there goes my prediction that Joy ended up being the Annie Wilkes from the Misery book. I was also waiting to see who the author was, I thought they might make it Stephen King himself, but alas no shots of his face. But it was painfully obvious Joy was dead, she was just too happy after being “revived.” Weird we got one random shot of the creepy kid from season one but he did not figure into anything. Then there was a random missing flyer of Henry Deaver in Canada. Was that supposed to be an Easter egg or are we to believe someone actually put that up in a Canadian gas station? No post credits scene so I guess we will have to wait until season three to see if they dip back into the original story.
You can watch Castle Rock on Hulu.

Survivor: Island of Idols: Well after forking things up all season, they finally removed Dan right before the finale. And did it because an off camera incident with someone who was not a contestant. Of course this led to rampant speculation on the internet until some website claims they had multiple sources that Dan grabbed a producer’s leg betting into a boat after a challenge. So grabbing Noura’s arm to claim how innocent the action was is okay, but goodness, cannot touch anyone in production. Oh well, at least we know for sure he is not winning.
You can download Survivor: Island of the Idols on iTunes.

The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2: Kind of a borefest like most finales on the show, and honestly, I spent most of the episode searching for what Dan did. But hey, at least Paulie and Cara Maria lost after decimating their team.
You can download The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2 on iTunes.

Almost Family: Well that was certainly a shocking ending. Of all the children he has fathered, the one Leon did not was the one he raised. Which begs the question, does he know? Clearly they did not need any sort of treatment but obviously he was definitely not shooting blanks. Weird that they set up this big weird family but now we know Juila is not blood related to her “sisters.”
You can download Almost Family on iTunes.

Stumptown: So Grey’s girlfriend turned out to be evil. Meh, and I kind of liked her. But what a weird plan to get rid of Dex. To assume that Grey would exile her but forgive did not seem like the best plan to me.
You can download Stumptown on iTunes.

The Blacklist: I thought last week would have made for a pretty good “fall finale” but then they really end with Lizzie’s mother being gunned down in the street… except not. Kind of extreme. And I did not get why Lizzie was so quick to side with her mother. She had been lying to her this whole time, had a dude tied up in her apartment, killed a dude in the vicinity of her kid, but lizzie still rescued her to safety.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.