A Late Night with the Devil wearing Argylle: it’s more than just fashionable TV recommendations. It’s #SetTheVCR.
Monday, April 15
Titanic (Anytime / Prime Video-US)
Today: The RMS Titanic sank in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912 in the North Atlantic Ocean, That history became a 1997 movie: A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic. The Titanic sinks…taking with it James Cameron’s dynamic career and True Lies 2. #RIPJamesCamerson
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: ARGYLLE (ANYTIME / APPLE TV+)
A reclusive author who writes espionage novels about a secret agent and a global spy syndicate realizes the plot of the new book she’s writing starts to mirror real-world events, in real time.
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Disappointingly, this is not a Die Hard spin-off with the dopest limo driver Argyle. Rather this is a spy caper and you know everybody in this. “It follows an unlikely spy mission taken by unassuming writer Elly Conway. Elly works alongside the real spy Aidan on a globe-trotting mission full of assassins, deception, betrayal and a global crisis. As the movie unfolds, viewers learn who the real Agent Argylle is after a series of twists.” Well, sounds fun. Though: Argylle struggled mightily at the box office. Think Argylle will be fashionable as a streaming movie?
Tuesday, April 16
April 16-19: NBA Play-In Tournament (TNT & ESPN)
The NBA’s stupid dumb play-in tournament is the preliminary National Basketball Association postseason tournament. The top six teams in each conference are guaranteed a first-round playoff series and the seeding matchups are the same as always. The Play-In Tournament determines the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds. Teams finishing seventh through 10th in each conference go into the Play-In Tournament pool of contestants. If you finished 11th through 15th, enjoy the lottery. Four other loser teams will be joining you shortly. Let’s encourage losers: so stupid dumb.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: AN AMERICAN BOMBING: THE ROAD TO APRIL 19TH (ANYTIME / HBO MAX & CRAVE)
Examines the surge in homegrown political violence through the story of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, showing the roots of anti-government sentiment and its reverberations today, along with the emotionally charged warnings of those who suffered tragic losses in the deadliest homegrown attack in U.S. history.
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Since the ’90s almost every single Marvel Comics crossover comes with this cheap marketing pitch: “this will fundamentally alter the entire status quo.” And sometimes it does, but it mostly doesn’t. Little changes. And what does, doesn’t last. It all goes back to normal. America is like Marvel crossover hype. Here’s the latest example…in between the Waco siege in 1993, the Unabomber and Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 is the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. It’s all one long dark thread. Nothing like some dark American history to alleviate the concerns of a dark American present.
Wednesday, April 17
Saving Sakic (Anytime / ESPN+ & Prime Video-Canada)
An hourlong documentary about the fascinating tale of how the hit action flick Air Force One helped save a hockey club that had relocated to the Rockies just a couple of years earlier.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: UNDER THE BRIDGE: LIMITED SERIES (ANYTIME / HULU)
Reena Virk, a fourteen-year-old girl went to join friends at a party and never returned home. Seven teenage girls and a boy were accused of the savage murder.
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Netflix recently released What Jennifer Did a documentary about a Markham loser Jennifer Pan: a high school dropout who arranged to have her parents killed (and did it all so badly.). Well, if psycho Canadian girls is your jam Hulu offers Under The Bridge. This eight episode limited series is adapted from the true-crime book Under the Bridge: The True Story of the Murder of Reena Virk by the late Rebecca Godfrey. Indeed more Canadian true crime: Reena Virk, a 14-year-old Canadian girl was beaten and killed by a group of teenagers in Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. It gets worse: six teenagers were tried and convicted for their participation in her death. So like Yellowjackets meets Mean Girls? Of course, this is all actors and scripts even though the events happened. In 2011 MSNBC released a documentary Bloodlust Under the Bridge if you wanna track that down. Fun, right? This horrific B.C. murder ignited a totally worthless moral panic over girl violence, mean girls…all that Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Children junk. All moral panics are just stupid people being stupid in public. (Yes, all.) Will these twin projects rehash those obtuse moral panics? Or have we moved on and embraced common sense? It’s all…water “Under The Bridge?”
Thursday, April 18
Dinner with the Parents: Season 1 (Anytime Freevee)
Series Premiere: Two brothers in their 20s go to their parents’ house for dinner every week and somehow get over it without physically dying of embarrassment.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: CONAN O’BRIEN MUST GO (ANYTIME / HBO MAX & CRAVE)
Conan is visiting new friends he’s met through his podcast, where he dives deep with listeners from around the world.
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Martin Short remains a comedy grenade: just an outstanding red light comic: put him in front of a camera and let him go…off! However, Conan O’Brien is right behind him as a comedy dynamo. Since wrapping up his TV show the work Conan has been doing is impressive. This is a Binge Release: all four episodes drop today. “Making stops in Norway, Thailand, Argentina, and Ireland, O’Brien surprises some of his most memorable fans while also taking in local culture, cuisine, and sights.” Conan goes ethnic is always gold because culture is always weird.
Friday, April 19
The Spiderwick Chronicles: Season 1 (Anytime / The Roku Channel)
Series Premiere: The Grace family moves from Brooklyn, New York, to their ancestral home in Henson, Michigan, the Spiderwick Estate. Helen makes the move with her 15-year-old fraternal twin boys, Jared and Simon, and her older daughter, Mallory. Shortly after moving to the Spiderwick Estate Jared discovers a boggart and realizes that magical creatures are real!
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: REBEL MOON: PART 2 – THE SCARGIVER (ANYTIME / NETFLIX)
Kora and surviving warriors prepare to defend Veldt, their new home, alongside its people against the Realm. The warriors face their pasts, revealing their motivations before the Realm’s forces arrive to crush the growing rebellion.
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In December when Part 1 was broadcast shortly before Christmas I wrote about Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon: “When a peaceful settlement on the edge of a distant moon finds itself threatened by the armies of a tyrannical ruling force, a mysterious stranger living among its villagers becomes their best hope for survival.” This looks, smells and tastes like Avatar meets Dune. Granted it looks like how Star Wars should be if Disney wasn’t so concerned about luring children but that’s not a hook. Yeah I dunno about all this. I haven’t watched Part 1…now I can enjoy the whole saga. I suppose.
Saturday, April 20
Empire of Light (Anytime / Crave)
A drama about the power of human connection during turbulent times, set in an English coastal town in the early 1980s.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: THE NBA PLAYOFFS 2024
The 2024 NBA playoffs are here. #BallorFall
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The regular season ended on April 14th.It was followed by the stupid dumb NBA Play-In Tournament to determine the final 2 seeds in each conference. And now (finally!) the stupid dumb NBA Play-In Tournament has mercifully ended. (As you can clearly pick up I’m not a fan of this recent post-season format.) Whatever. Today, now…this is the real NBA post-season with the real NBA Playoffs. June 6 is Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals. And that’s the focus and the sprint. The first round kicks off tonight and tomorrow. The schedule is below.
Sunday, April 21
The Beekeeper (Anytime / Prime Video-Canada)
One man’s brutal campaign for vengeance takes on national stakes after he is revealed to be a former operative of a powerful and clandestine organization known as Beekeepers.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL (ANYTIME / SHUDDER)
A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.
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Oh, yes! “October 31, 1977. Jack Delroy’s syndicated talk show, Night Owls, has long been a trusted companion to insomniacs around the country, but a year on from the tragic death of Jack’s wife, ratings have plummeted. Desperate to turn his fortunes around, Jack plans a Halloween special like no other, unaware he is about to unleash evil into the living rooms of America.” I’m sold! There’s something extra creepy about ’70s horror. I can’t identify it but it just works. I missed this at the movies so now on Shudder I’m looking forward to a Late Night With The Devil.
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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.
