Around the Tubes: April 5, 2025

  

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post includes blurbs on  Nine Perfect Strangers, The Last of Us, Motorheads, Sydney Rose, Deborah Silver, and Belles.

- "Nine Perfect Strangers" is back for season two as nine new strangers come together to undergo Masha's psychedelic therapy at Zauberwald in the breathtaking Austrian Alps. Season two premieres on May 21, 2025, with two episodes at launch, followed by weekly releases on Hulu. Nine new strangers connected in ways they could never imagine are invited by mysterious guru Masha Dmitrichenko (Nicole Kidman) to join a transformational wellness retreat in the Austrian Alps. Over the course of a week, she takes them to the brink. Will they make it? Will she? Masha is willing to try anything in the interest of healing everyone involved, including herself.

- As the highly anticipated Season Two premiere of HBO’s Emmy®-winning original drama series The Last of Us approaches, Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment invites fans to immerse themselves in a gripping exploration of varying apocalyptic/dystopian worlds with the "Destination Dystopia" promotion. The promotion runs now through May 12. This curated collection features iconic dystopian television series and films that are captivating, thought provoking, and offer viewers a comprehensive journey through the genre's most compelling narratives. Titles are available on physical and digital.  Shop Now at Amazon and FanFlix. - Prime Video announced the premiere date and revealed first-look images for the upcoming young-adult action thriller, Motorheads. All ten episodes will debut exclusively on Prime Video on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.  Motorheads is about first love, first heartbreak, and turning the key in your first car. Set in a once-thriving rust-belt town that’s now searching for a glimmer of hope, the series is an adrenaline-filled story of a group of outsiders who form an unlikely friendship over a mutual love of street racing, while navigating the hierarchy and rules of high school.  The series stars: Ryan Phillippe (Shooter), Nathalie Kelley (The Baker and the Beauty), Michael Cimino (Love, Victor), Melissa Collazo (One Of Us Is Lying), Uriah Shelton (The Glades, Girl Meets World), Nicolas Cantu (The Walking Dead: The World Beyond), Drake Rodger (The Winchesters), Josh Macqueen (Significant Others), Mia Healey (The Wilds), Matt Lanter (90210), Audrey Gerthoffer (Party of Five) and Johnna Dias-Watson (Wednesday). - Emerging as an artist to watch in 2025, acclaimed Georgia-born and Nashville-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Sydney Rose shares her anxiously awaited new EP I Know What I Want out now via Mercury Records. Listen HERE.  To celebrate its arrival, she just shared the official music video for her breakthrough single “We Hug Now.” Watch HERE. The clip evokes the track’s hypnotic mood on-screen, illustrating a heart-wrenching narrative on girlhood and friendships. Sydney wanders through a quiet suburb, sings from the backseat of an old school eighties Sedan, surveys the aisles of a local grocery store, and watches her friends from the background as it seems they pass her by. It brings the spirit of the song to life in cinematic fashion with just the right amount of vintage grit. -  Billboard chart-topping and Amazon best-selling vocalist Deborah Silver continues to bridge the worlds of classic rock and jazz with her upcoming album, Basie Rocks!, out May 2 on Green Hill Productions. Following the release of “Baby, I Love Your Way” featuring Peter Frampton and her fiery take on The Rolling Stones’ “Paint It, Black” featuring 10-time GRAMMY®-winning Cuban trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, along with Pedrito Martínez on percussion, Silver today releases her third song with “Tainted Love” featuring GRAMMY®-winning jazz vocalist Kurt Elling.  Silver, together with Elling and the 2024 GRAMMY®-winning Count Basie Orchestra, alongside renowned, award-winning jazz composer and arranger, Andy Farber (Jon Hendricks, Wynton Marsalis), transform Soft Cell’s classic synth-pop hit into a sultry smooth reinvention for audiences to enjoy. - Country artist Belles (Kelli Belles) debuts a brand-new music video for her newest single, “Happy Hour”. You can watch the captivating new music video here and listen to “Happy Hour” across all streaming platforms here.  "Happy Hour" cleverly plays on the familiar phrase, telling the story of longing for just one fleeting hour of joy and connection with someone. With lyrics like, "I'd give for one happy hour, one where your kiss is sweet and not sour," the song captures the bittersweet desire for a moment of harmony. The music video, shot at the Bowery Vault in East Nashville, emphasizes the solitude of this yearning emotion, reflecting the quiet ache for peace in a relationship. With its steady tempo, resonant drums, and melodic guitar, the track evokes a vintage feel that beautifully enhances the emotional narrative of the song. The music video was directed by Sydney Tooley and the director of photography was Corbin Schmidt

57 Channels and Only This Is On: March 30, 2025

 

The White Lotus:  Well, they did it.  They did the incest.  Except the sister was not involved.  Not sure where that ranks on the WTF Power Ranking with Boyd Crowder’s buddy’s monologue last week.

 

Grosse Point Garden Society:  Um, so they went from looking like the husband was dead, directly into the side piece.  Are they just going to tease a new person who died every week until they actually reveal which one it was?  But the side piece does not seem like someone who would kill a stranger’s dog, so I do not think it was him.

 

The Righteous Gemstones:  I have been slowly watching Deli Boys and finally realize this week the January 6 guy is BJ without the mustache.  Both shows are pretty weird.

 

Daredevil: Born Again:  If we do not get Matt in Jersey City this season, I will be thoroughly disappointed.  Of course, this begs the question, what exactly what is Ms. Marvel doing in California?  Cassie Lang seems like the most likely answer.  Will they actually give us a Young Avenger’s update on this show?  Could Cassie and Kate Bishop also show up to this dinner party?

 

But we finally got Matt back in the suit.  Only took six episodes.  I guess the final two episodes will be Daredevil and The Punisher against the new vigilante taskforce.  But will anyone else show up?  I am guessing Ms. Marvel will sit this one out since she is in Jersey.

 

The Challenge All Stars: Rivals:  This is the type of challenge this show should be doing.  TJ thinks this should be some athletic show, but if you are bringing in a bunch of old people, they should be silly, like human shuffleboard through suds.  Though I would quibble with the rules suggesting the points should have been cumulative. 

 

Survivor:  There is nothing dumber on this show than when someone gives up their Immunity.  But in the non-giving up your Immunity power ranking, we had back to back entries in recent weeks.  Last time we had Cedrick keep on voting for Sai before saving her at the last minute if she promised to play nice.  This week we had Briana, who all she had to say to Cedric was that Sai was targeting him for trying to vote her out, or just not say anything else and let there be a tie and hope someone switches, gets voted out for stupidly telling Cedrick she had no vote.

 

Or we have to assume that would have been the outcome because the editors did not bother to let us know when Cedrick and Chrissy teamed up to get rid of Bianca seemingly unbeknownst to their original tribemates.  Blindsides are awesome in this game, just not when the editors blindside the audience.  They have to let us know every possibility.

 

 Between the messy Tribal and the emotional Immunity Challenge, it may be easy to forget that Star gave up her Immunity Idol.  Wait, what?  Plus she gave it to someone she was targeting two weeks ago.  While I just said giving up Immunity is extremely dumb, this actually kind of makes sense.  An Immunity Idol that everyone know about is kind of worthless and puts a target on your back.  Then if what the editors did not show that led to the elimination this week was Cedric and Chrissy teaming up to target the old Lagi tribe, that would put the biggest target on Eva's back.  It will interesting how all the alliance pan out at the Merge.