#SetTheVCR: August 19-25, 2024

Cowboys and Killers and Bikeriders…The Incoming TV Recommendations for this week are outstanding. You’ll wanna #SetTheVCR for all of this.

Monday, August 19

The AMC Series Collection (Anytime / Netflix-US)

13 AMC shows start streaming on American Netflix today: A Discovery of Witches (Seasons 1-3), Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches (Season 1), Dark Winds (Seasons 1-2), Fear the Walking Dead (Seasons 1-8), Monsieur Spade (Limited Series) and more! Netflix has confirmed these shows will stream on Netflix for a year so fire up some AMC on Netflix, starting today.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA (ANYTIME / HBO MAX & CRAVE)

As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home..
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I contributed to Furiosa’s terrible box office! I had zero interest in seeing this tripe. (Plus? Bad Furiosa Box Office gives you the license to write about the death of the theatrical experience: “See!!! It’s dying!!” Good Furiosa Box Office gives you the license to write about female empowerment and Hollywood’s old fashioned values: “See!!! This is what we want!!”) Like all those clichéd box office Rorschach test perspectives, we’re still doing Mad Max movies. Mad Max: Fury Road was deeply overrated. Couple of decent visuals, Tom Hardy had some moments but mostly it failed to anything fresh to the Mad Max Universe. I was so Furiosa I hadda sit through that junk. That Mad Max movie was more hollow than a Dollar Store synthetic chocolate Easter bunny. So, I was deeply committed to my reluctance about not seeing this one: Anya Taylor-Joy is not a marketing hook. Try Harder. Be Better. Well, now it’s streaming! I can freely sample this. Programming Note: Looks like this streaming version is in colour, not the Black & Chrome Edition.

Tuesday, August 20

OceanXplorers: Season 1 (Anytime / Hulu & Disney+)

James Cameron produced a six-part oceanography/exploration docuseries. This National Geographic series takes audiences aboard the OceanXplorer, OceanX’s state-of-the-art scientific research and exploration vessel, to investigate the farthest frontiers of the world’s oceans, 80% of which are entirely unknown. Armed with advanced technology, a hand-picked team of intrepid explorers and scientists, National Geographic Explorers and other ocean experts embark on a global odyssey to solve some of the ocean’s greatest mysteries through the lives of its animals and their ecosystems.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: UNTOLD: THE MURDER OF AIR MCNAIR (ANYTIME / NETFLIX)

This documentary tracks the rise of legendary NFL quarterback Steve McNair and the perplexing details surrounding his shocking murder in 2009.
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“July 4, 2009. Former NFL quarterback Steve McNair is found murdered in his Nashville condo. He’s been shot four times—twice in the chest, once in each temple—and his mistress Jenni Kazemi is lying dead at his feet, with a single gunshot wound to her head. After just four days of investigating, Nashville police conclude that Jenni killed Steve and then herself. Murder-suicide.” This is the setup from the Sports Illustrated investigative podcast series: Fall of a Titan: The Steve McNair Story. Released in October 2018. True Crime meets NFL documentary. That podcast then and now this Netflix documentary attempts to address the many unanswered questions, sort rumours from facts and uncover fresh leads. “Through gripping game day footage and emotional interviews with teammates, coaches, and friends, the film captures the excitement of that season — and McNair’s career at large — while also examining the factors that led to his and Kazemi’s tragic deaths.” Even though these deaths happened in 2009, in 2024 I guess we’re going back to “did Jenni Kazemi really kill Steve McNair?” Programming Note: As you can see from the trailer below this volume of the anthology documentary series kicks off today with 3 stories. Following this doc comes: Sign Stealer, directed by Micah Brown, premieres August 27 and Hope Solo vs. U.S. Soccer, directed by Nina Meredith premieres September 3.

Wednesday, August 21

Terror Tuesday: Extreme (Anytime / Netflix)

Based on the haunting true stories told on a Thai radio show, the new horror series Terror Tuesday: Extreme will bring eight stories to the screen directed by eight directors in eight episodes of extreme terror with an incredible cast that will give you a series of unexpected fear. Terror Tuesday: Extreme is part of Netflix’s ongoing investment in Thailand, so let’s check in and see how that is doing.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: WYATT EARP AND THE COWBOY WAR (ANYTIME / NETFLIX)

The legendary feud between Wyatt Earp and Ike Clanton unfolds through vivid reenactments in this gritty docudrama about the gunfight that defined an era.
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Tombstone remains one of my all time favorite movies. And while Val Kilmer and those hypnotic mustaches (all real!) stole the show it overlooked what this hybrid docu-drama will point out: “It looks back at how the famed gunfight at the OK Corral garnered international attention and nearly sparked a second Civil War.” (The shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, happened October 26, 1881.) One of the best American creations is the outlaw: no culture outlaws as hard and as good as America does. Happily, this Netflix production is a six-episode docuseries, so let’s unpack all the stories behind the headlines. I wanna know more about these gunslingers. Tell me who these outlaws are. Is Wyatt Earp cool or just an unhinged psycho? Doc Holliday’s Wikipedia profile reads: he “was an American dentist, gambler, and gunfighter…” now that’s a magnificent bio. I know dentists…they’re boringly kind folks. Certainty not gamblers and gunfighters. I’m gonna make a tea for this: “You tell ‘em I’M coming… and hell’s coming with me, you hear?” Cowboys and ruckus…this is True Crime without the serial killer or the kidnapped white girl with a story that doesn’t add up. Yes. I can smell the horse poop, already.

Thursday, August 22

Jackpot! (Anytime / Prime Video)

In a comedic action film set in a near-future California where there’s a new twist on the state lottery: If you can track down and kill (without using a gun) someone holding a winning ticket on the day the winner is announced, the prize becomes yours. It’s Paul Feig so it’s supposed to be a comedy?!
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: THE BIKERIDERS (ANYTIME / PEACOCK)

Set in the 1960s, it follows the rise of a fictional Midwestern motorcycle club. Seen through the lives of its members, the club evolves over the course of a decade from a gathering place for local outsiders into a more sinister gang, threatening the original group’s unique way of life.
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The Outsiders with motorcycles: The Bikeriders is your classic late-60s motorcycle life with performances from actors you know well, gorgeous filmmaking, and a rocking era-correct soundtrack. Is there such a thing as a good gang? Or gang members with a heart of gold?

Friday, August 23

Hell Hole (Anytime / Shudder)

Did you watch this movie at Fantasia Festival? Hell Hole hails from the filmmaking family behind Hellbender and centers on an American-led fracking crew that uncovers a living French soldier frozen in time from a Napoleonic campaign, whose body hosts a parasitic monster.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: INCOMING (ANYTIME / NETFLIX)

Their first week of high school. The biggest party of the year. Mistakes will be made as four teenage boys navigate a night of mayhem and debauchery.
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Here’s what you can expect: “Four freshmen are eager to make a splash at their first-ever high school party. But you know what they say about best-laid plans…shit happens.” It’s R Rated so think American Pie meets Good Boys. Sex and Chaos!! Incoming is like Superbad meets Project X. So fresh. Shout out to all the kids who’re gonna sneak watch this when their parents aren’t around. Summer’s the time to store up all the filthy material for when school starts. Losers no more! The coolest kids were the ones who could recite Eddie Murphy Delirious or Andrew Dice Clay routines. (Ok not really but still, I found em cool!). Everybody is in this is a McLovin loser (literally, some of the hot girls are TikTok losers) but it’s filthy fun. So let’s go! I’m in the mood for something crass with brass balls.

Saturday, August 24

Rick and Morty: The Anime (Anytime / Adult Swim)

Saturday Morning Cartoons: The Rick and Morty universe expands with the debut of an all-new anime from visionary director Takashi Sano that follows Rick, Morty and the rest of the Smith family in a new intergalactic adventure.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: THE KILLER (ANYTIME / PEACOCK & PRIME VIDEO-CANADA)

Meet Zee, a mysterious and infamous assassin known, and feared, in the Parisian underworld as the Queen of the Dead.
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I’ll say this in slow motion so you understand: this is new John Woo. Kinda, but not really. The Killer is a 1989 Hong Kong action film written and directed by John Woo. Oddly, this is an English-language remake of the film, also directed by Woo. (This time the screenplay is by Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Mystic River).) I’m not sure why he’d make an English language remake but it’s John Woo. He’s always been a Killer.

Sunday, August 25

City of God: The Fight Rages On Season 1 (Anytime / HBO Max)

An adapted continuation of the literary work of Paulo Lins and will tell the story of its characters taking as a starting point the work of the photographer Buscapé. The plot unfolds in the early 2000s when the release of a young drug dealer from prison puts Cidade de Deus back into dispute. Residents find themselves trapped between drug traffickers, militias and public authorities, but the need to escape this cycle makes the community unite to face the oppressor. Released in 2002 City of God remains one of the best foreign films of all time. It’s an electric & super raw film. I dunno about a TV show sequel: 6 episodes that take place two decades after the movie events.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: OL’ DIRTY BASTARD: A TALE OF TWO DIRTYS (9:00 P.M. / A&E)

The film marks the first official documentary about the iconic Grammy-nominated musician and legendary founding member of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan.
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Hard to believe but it’s been 20 years since we lost ODB: November 13, 2004. Born Russell Jones in 1968 in Brooklyn, Ol’ Dirty Bastard stood out in the spirited Wu-Tang Clan. A rap group brimming with remarkable personalities; Dirty had a remarkable style. Accordingly, Raekwon and Ghostface Killah are featured in this doc. And of course Mariah Carey. Co-directed by Sam Pollard. Outstanding director who likes to Bring Da Ruckus. (Check out his doc: MLK/FBI.) The other co-director is Jason Pollard who is smooth as C.R.E.A.M. (Check out his doc Bitchin’ The Sound and Fury of Rick James.) Just as The Last Dance allowed us to reflect on Jordan’s cultural contributions this two-hour broadcast event lets us recognize Dirty’s impact. And grieve his loss. In some ways his work and his life has been like a Fantasy.