Welcome, a new streaming service to the platform party: Quibi. No need to feel overwhelmed with all those streaming options: as always at #SetTheVCR I got ya covered!
Sunday, April 5
Sammy Suggestion: Justice Double Header (7 p.m. and 8 p.m. / Oxygen and HBO)
The surreal timing of Kim Kardashian’s The Justice Project is that it airs on the same night as HBO’s Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children. 2 documentaries detailing how we’re racist, biased etc. The Justice Project is Kim Kardashian’s vanity project about prison reform and our collective inhumanity. Basically a profitable tv reality star wants to know why we suck at giving people a second chance? 7 p.m. on Oxygen. While Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children follows up with questions regarding Mindhunter’s second season. Police have reopened the case and are actively examing DNA evidence. 8 p.m. on HBO. S’a dark night, yo.
Monday, April 6
Where’s My Roy Cohn? (9 p.m. / Starz)
Deadwater Fell (Anytime / Acorn TV)
Sammy Suggestion: Quibi
Welcome Quibi the newest and latest streaming service. It comes with the standard free trial: 90 days and costs $4.99 per month with ads or $7.99 per month without ads. And there’s a hook. Quibi’s daily episodes are 10 minutes or less. Including movies. Watching a movie in 10 minute bursts is according to my friends with kids how they watch movies. So this may find an audience. Quibi is designed for phone viewing as comfy commuter entertainment the way lots of subway riders consume the NY Times Daily podcast. Unfortunately, not a lot of people are commuting these days. So a slight hitch.
Quibi launches with movies like the thriller Most Dangerous Game starring Christoph Waltz and the non-Thor Hemsworth, a Punk’d revival (is this some kind of joke?), The Replay by ESPN is covering sports while 60 in 6 by CBS News is well current news. An odd grab bag of programming. (This won’t be at launch and no air date has been confirmed however for Quibi the Russo brothers are documenting the decades-long rivalry between Marvel and DC based on Reed Tucker’s marvelous book Slugfest: Inside the Epic, 50-Year Battle Between Marvel and DC. Highly recommended reading. I’d be curious to check that out if and when it drops.)
For now, might I suggest Murder House Flip a home makeover show that fixes and flips homes where…indeed murders have happened! Oh that’ll be fun for 10 minutes or less.
Tuesday, April 7
Sammy Suggestion: The Last O.G. (10:30 p.m. / TBS)
This Tracy Morgan show is back with a third season. I dig Tracy Morgan and I’ve always been wanting to watch this show only I haven’t gotten around to it. We have all these tv shows that we want to eventually get around to you know? As tv productions have halted this might be the window for me to finally get into The Last O.G.
Wednesday, April 8
Modern Family (ends its run with a farewell special followed by a double-length series finale) (8 p.m. / ABC)
Sammy Suggestion: Parasite (Anytime / Hulu)
One of the more embarrassing aspects of Parasite winning Oscars was that many people just discovered Korean cinema. I pinched my nose under my glasses: I can’t help you any more; I mean we all have the same Google. Parasite is debuting on Hulu and it’ll no doubt begin making its way to other streaming platforms over the next few months. (Bonus Fun? Parasite’s director Bong Joon-ho also directed 2013’s Snowpiercer and he’s adapting that into a TNT tv series that’ll debut on May 17, 2020. Look for that in an upcoming #SetTheVCR.)
Thursday, April 9
Sammy Suggestion: Shaq Life (9 p.m. / TNT)
Well in the absence of Inside The NBA (easily one of the greatest sports shows ever) we get Shaq Life. Pairs well with barbecue chicken.
Friday, April 10
Love Wedding Repeat (Anytime / Netflix)
Good Boys (Anytime / Crave)
Sammy Suggestion: LA Originals (Anytime / Netflix)
Netflix’s latest documentary LA Originals recognizes two happening homeboys photographer Estevan Oriol and artist Mister Cartoon, two pioneering figures of the Chicano street art movement. Graffiti, photography and hip hop it’s all here. (Nobody uses the word homeboys any more do they? “I used to be with it, until they changed what it was. Now what I am with isn’t it and what is it seems weird and scary to me. It’ll happen to you!”)
Saturday, April 11
Sammy Suggestion: It: Chapter 2 (8 p.m. / HBO)
I relished IT’s First Chapter. Chapter Two while still wonderfully creepy didn’t feel as tight. Perhaps the Losers were all grown up and ready to properly finish off Pennywise? Be fun to Kill Bill style and watch the entire IT saga in one sitting now. I mean we all got the time now right?
