#CouchWorthy: July 2024 TV Highlights

July Highlights

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (Anytime / Netflix)

And now, we’re at Beverly Hills Cop IV. Why? Eddie Murphy is back with as Axel Foley. Forty years after his unforgettable first case in Beverly Hills, Detroit detective Axel Foley returns to do what he does best: solve crimes and cause chaos. Jerry Bruckheimer is back that helps. But is that enough? The last movie came out in 1994. The first movie came out in 1984. Is it worth it to go back? Will Beverly Hills Cop 4 be Raw and Delirious?
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: SUNNY: SEASON 1 (ANYTIME / APPLE TV+)

Suzie, an American woman living in Kyoto, Japan, has her life upended when her husband and son disappear in a mysterious plane crash. As “consolation,” she’s given Sunny, one of a new class of domestic robots made by her husband’s electronics company.
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Series Premiere: An adaptation of the book Dark Manual by Japan-based Irish writer Colin O’Sullivan, it sees Jones play Suzie a grieving wife and mother. She lost her family in a plane crash. Suzie is gifted a domestic robot named Sunny from the tech company her husband worked for, to help her fill the void of her loss. Cue the husband was hiding secrets she now discovers in the wake of his death and this goes from Lost in Translation to Sherlock Holmes and Watson. Programming Note: Premiere with the first two episodes, followed by one new episode every Wednesday through September 4, 2024.

July Highlights

Cobra Kai: Season 6 – Part 1 (Anytime / Netflix)

Netflix has karate chopped Cobra Kai‘s sixth and final season into three parts: Part 1 debuts on July 18, 2024, Part 2 on November 28, 2024 and Part 3 in 2025.  “Our strength is we teach both styles equally. Don’t jeopardize that balance, man,” Daniel LaRusso say to Johnny Lawrence in the trailer. Peace has come to the warring dojos but that doesn’t neutralize the external threats. The final season consists of 15 episodes and picks up with Cobra Kai having been eliminated from the Valley. Our senseis and students must decide whether and how they will compete in the Sekai Taikai, the world championships of karate. There’s honour to finishing what started on YouTube Red in May 2018 strong.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: HATE TO LOVE: NICKELBACK (ANYTIME / NETFLIX)

An intimate portrait of the Canadian stadium rockers roller coaster career. From their rural roots in Alberta to becoming one of the most successful, yet divisive acts in music history.
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Happy Canada Day! On July 1, 2024 Canada turned 157 years old and given the world so much music including…Nickelback. I’ve never understood Nickelback hate. They’re just a generic rock band; not terrible not amazing. Like I can’t stand The Killers, so pretentious for no good reason. Isn’t it boring to hate on Nickelback? A Finnish researcher published her Nickelback study: Hypocritical Bullshit Performed Through Gritted Teeth. “Critics have attacked Nickelback for being too calculated in their artistic approach,” she writes. Like…really?! Beyonce and Drake employ an army of writers. Max Martin wrote Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off. Like what are we talking about? Authenticity is not necessary for mainstream success, we’ve seen that with many worthless “influencers.” So I’ll watch the documentary as Canada Day fireworks pop off but I don’t understand all the hate. I really, don’t.

July Highlights

Snowpiercer: Season 4 (Anytime / AMC+ & Crave)

TNT’s Snowpiercer adaptation (Vanilla Ice’s favourite show: Too Cold!) returns for a fourth and final season. Set more than seven years after the world has become a frozen wasteland, Snowpiercer centers on the remnants of humanity who inhabit a perpetually moving train, with 1001 cars, that circles the globe. Your class warfare, social injustice and the politics of survival naturally play out in this sci-fi thriller. Is Snowpiercer’s end the beginning of the human race?
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: THE ARK: SEASON 2 (10 P.M. / SYFY)

In season two, after the brave crew of Ark One reaches their destination and finds it uninhabitable, they must survive long enough to locate a new home for themselves and all the ships that follow.
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Ark One is the Godspeed Little Doodle of the human race. The 12-episode sci-fi show (created by Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner) is set “100 years in the future when planetary colonization missions have begun as a necessity to help secure the survival of the human race.” Only years from reaching the target planet Ark One suffers catastrophic damage. This is a harrowing tale of human race survival. Too far from home and not close enough to safety. The Ark is adrift and only Noah can relate. The first season was uneven but when it was good, it was strong. With Snowpiercer pulling into the station (see Sunday, below) how about checking out The Ark to see if humans can yet again survive a massive and devastating setback. Will what’s looking like the last bit of humanity reach a new Earth or will they be doomed in space? Programming Note: You can watch Season 1 on Peacock. And Season 2 episodes will also stream on Peacock.

July Highlights

Futurama: Season 12 (Anytime / Hulu & Disney+ Canada)

The TV Guide says: “On this orbit around the sun, our occasionally heroic crew embarks on mind-bending adventures involving birthday party games to the death, the secrets of Bender’s ancestral robot village, A.I. friends (and enemies), impossibly cute beanbags, and the true 5 million-year-old story behind the consciousness-altering substance known as coffee. And, of course, the next chapter in Fry and Leela’s fateful, time-twisted romance.” Hulu has renewed Futurama, for two more seasons (seasons 13 and 14) for an additional 20 episodes. After a 10-year hiatus Hulu originally revived the freshtastic series in 2022 with a 20-episode order. It’s so good to have more Futurama!
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: WILD WILD SPACE (ANYTIME / HBO MAX & CRAVE)

The documentary chronicles the fast paced, high-stakes race of epic proportions in which companies compete to blast satellite-carrying rockets into low earth orbit.
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Have you read Ashlee Vance’s When the Heavens Went on Sale? Fantastic #SpaceIsThePlace non-fiction book. This isn’t about the billionaire space race (which, like most people I find inspiring. We need all the help we can get. China is gonna be a problem.). Rather the book and therefore this HBO documentary details rocket and satellite startups. Like Silicon Valley space has become a whole industry. Wild Wild Space follows three rocket and satellite companies – Astra Space, Rocket Lab, and Planet Labs. Space is the frontier which means devastating setbacks and “big brother” ethics that come with all technological advances. Space doesn’t just mean going to Mars, it also means satellites from planet-saving and environmental imaging to Scary Snowden Surveillance. Space remains as a realm of embarrassing ignorance…many people will be foolish in public saying why are we going to space? There’s the silly commentary on billionaires: lousy backseat driving from middle class folks about how they should spend their money. Cringey comments like that. You can be comfortably stupid about space in public. Yet going to space has given us hope…and the GPS and scratch-resistant lenses and the microwave. Humanity benefits when we go to space. I highly recommend Ashlee Vance’s book as well as Neil deGrasse Tyson & Avis Lang’s book: Accessory to War…The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military.

July Highlights

The Fortress: Limited Series (Anytime / Viaplay)

Limited Series Premiere: And now a Norwegian dystopian drama: In the year 2037, an enormous wall surrounds Norway, where its people enjoy privileged and sheltered lives in a self-sufficient Nordic paradise. (Next door Sweden has become a refugee camp hell.) But when a deadly pandemic breaks out, the inhabitants soon realise that the wall intended to protect, is instead holding them prisoner. The Fortress (Norwegian title Festning Norge) is eight parts. Did you watch Into the Night on Netflix? It’s a Belgian apocalyptic science-fiction thriller which I didn’t even know was a genre. Outstanding TV series, I hope the Fortress can address that gap.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: RED EYE: LIMITED SERIES (ANYTIME / PARAMOUNT+ CANADA)

London police officer DC Hana Li is escorting Dr Matthew Nolan back to Beijing where he has been accused of a crime. However, on board flight 357, she finds herself embroiled in an escalating conspiracy and a growing number of murders.
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Limited Series Premiere: Red Eye is a six-part British thriller that aired on ITV on April 21, 2024. (At first I was deeply annoyed, thinking it was a TV remake of the Wes Craven movie but it’s not…just same dumb name.) Anyways the Limited Series caught the Red Eye and crossed the pond to come here to Canada on July 5th. Most of the series takes place during an all-night flight between London and Beijing after a British man (Dr Matthew Nolan) is extradited to China on suspicion of murder. Before getting on the flight Dr Matthew Nolan launched into a theatrical scene in the departure lounge talking about injustice. Of course, he went viral. And now on the flight with DC Hana Li, a passenger dies after eating a vegan meal intended for Nolan. So someone wants him dead. And they’re still on the flight? Lean back and buckle your seatbelt, we’re about to take off.

July Highlights

Receiver: Season 1 (Anytime / Netflix)

Fumbling Is Not an Option: An NFL follow-up sports documentary series to last Summer’s Quarterback. This time with the gentlemen who catch the thrown ball: Davante Adams, WR, Raiders, Justin Jefferson, WR, Vikings, George Kittle, TE, 49ers, Deebo Samuel, WR, 49ers and Amon-Ra St. Brown, WR, Lions.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: CHARLIE HUSTLE & THE MATTER OF PETE ROSE (ANYTIME / HBO MAX & CRAVE)

The documentary series features intimate new interviews and verité footage of Pete Rose, chronicling his life and career in baseball.
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Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame. He’s just better than you. We went through all of this with Lance Armstrong: he’s just better than you. His gambling is loathsome but thankfully Rose was paid to win not to be a saint. Win he did. “Rose was an integral part of the famed Big Red Machine, the Reds teams that from 1970 to 1976 won five division titles, four NL pennants, and World Series championships in 1975 and 1976.” He then played for the Phillies and helped that team win the World Series in 1980. Gambling is wrong, and I actively advocate for harsh petalites for those who bet on the games. However, I acknowledge two crucial aspects: there’s a wonderful double standard in sports. Jordan gambling on games shouldn’t be treated like a loser bench warmer. Which leads to my second point: winning covers a multitude of sins. Did you win…yes or no? Were you good…yes or no? This looks fascinating. Programming Note: All four episodes will be available to stream Wednesday, July 24 on HBO Max. (First two parts are broadcast tonight, next 2 tomorrow night if you want to actually #SetTheVCR.)

July Highlights

Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer (Anytime / Hulu & Disney+ Canada)

A fascinating perspective on the woman whose crime-hunting innovations changed history. To stop serial killers, psychiatric nurse and professor Dr. Ann Burgess must first learn to think like one. With unprecedented access to the mastermind behind the development of modern serial-killer profiling, the series tells Burgess’ tenacious story and her compassion for victims, which puts her at the center of America’s most infamous true-crime cases. Remember Ed Kemper in Mindhunter? He’s in this!
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: THE BOY IN THE WOODS (ANYTIME / PARAMOUNT+ CANADA)

The remarkable true-life survival story of a Jewish boy hiding and being hunted in the forests of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe.
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Maxwell Smart’s book details his traumatic true-life survival story…a Jewish boy hiding and being hunted in the forests of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe during World War II. His harrowing memoir has been adapted into a feature film directed by Rebecca Snow whose previous WWII work was Cheating Hitler: Surviving The Holocaust; a 2019 Canadian television documentary. The Boy in the Woods (the movie) is about a child-fugitive forced to fend for himself in the forests of Poland. Child actor Jett Klyne plays Max a Jewish boy aged 12 from Warsaw, trying to evade capture during the second World War. His selfless mother tells him to run away from the Nazi trucks which they are about to fatally board with his little sister. He succeeds in running away but is unable to find peace. And how, exactly is a boy supposed to survive in the woods? Alone? I just wrote about this and included a My Summer Lair conversation Jett Klyne in this recent My Pal Sammy dispatch.

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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.