#SetTheVCR: July 7-13, 2025

#SetTheVCR is your Institute for TV Recommendations: from Trainwrecks to Jaws I drop it like it’s hot!

Monday, July 07

Curry Inc: The Business of Stephen Curry (Anytime / Peacock)

This all-new CNBC Sport production (which aired on CNBC on June 4) pulls back the curtain on how the four-time NBA champion and two-time MVP is building a legacy that goes far beyond basketball. Viewers get an inside look at Thirty Ink, Curry’s thriving business empire that spans media, fitness, lifestyle, philanthropy, and spirits.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: DEAR MS.: A REVOLUTION IN PRINT (ANYTIME / HBO MAX & CRAVE)

Launching its first trailblazing issue in 1972 and still publishing today, Ms. magazine revolutionized the feminist movement, igniting provocative conversations about issues that impact women, from politics to harassment, race, sex, and abortion.
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“No, my first name ain’t baby / It’s Janet…Ms. Jackson, if you’re nasty.” Yes! “Ms. wasn’t just a magazine-it was a revolution. Told through the lens of three directors and the covers that made history.” So gonna make a seriously serious tea for this…it’s a three-part documentary with a different director/tone for each part. Talking heads include: Gloria Steinem, Alan Alda and a whole pile of Ms. editors and contributors. (In Part One…A Magazine for all Women there’s a contemporary interview with a founding Ms. editor, clearly in her 70s recalled what she wore that fateful first day in the Ms. office. After she describes her pink outfit she pauses then adds: “A girdle. Definitely a girdle.” Yo, get it girl!! Can’t launch a revolution without some necessary support right?) I dig these windows into these sub-cultures that ripple out and impact society. Women’s Lib/feminism is just as potent as early hip hop. Burning a bra is gangsta rap for ladies. The documentary is now streaming if you Ms.-ed it when it premiered on July 2nd.

Tuesday, July 08

Quarterback: Season 2 (Anytime / Netflix)

Follow along as cameras go behind the scenes for the first time with Joe Burrow (Cincinnati Bengals) and Jared Goff (Detroit Lions) and follow Season 1 fan-favorite Kirk Cousins (Atlanta Falcons) as he embarks on a new chapter in his career during the 2024-25 NFL season. Like Season 1, Quarterback: Season 2 will offer an unfiltered look at the on-field action and off-field reality of life as an NFL quarterback.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: TRAINWRECK: THE REAL PROJECT X (ANYTIME / NETFLIX)

A night of drunken chaos rocks a quiet Dutch town in this shocking documentary about a teen’s birthday invite that accidentally went viral on Facebook.
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Shout out to all the kids who’re gonna sneak watch this when their parents aren’t around. Summer’s the ideal time to store up the filthy material for when school starts. Losers no more! And not to overthink it but man Project X is American commentary…it’s funny cos it’s true. Kinda wish they gunned for satire. Still an excellent soundtrack and loaded with hot girls. However, the feature film is a fiction. And this is…the truth? A truth? “In 2012, a teenage girl in the small Netherlands town of Haren creates a Facebook event for her sixteenth birthday party, but makes the page public instead of private. Inspired by a love of the Hollywood movie Project X, Dutch teenagers make the event go viral, and soon thousands of people have RSVP’ed.” Is this a party or a riot, now?

Wednesday, July 09

Ballard: Season 1 (Anytime / Prime Video)

Maggie Q stars as LAPD detective Renée Ballard in a spinoff from Bosch: Legacy that is similarly based on Michael Connelly’s book series. Ballard is tasked with leading the department’s new (but underfunded) cold case division, and in this first season her investigation into decades-old killings lead to the uncovering of a conspiracy within the LAPD. All 10 episodes stream today.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: BOB TREVINO LIKES IT (ANYTIME / HOOPLA)

Lily Trevino unexpectedly befriends an online stranger, sharing her self-centered father’s name. This new Bob Trevino’s support could transform her life.
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This isn’t You Got Mail. This isn’t a boy meets girl story or movie. Rather it’s the slow tender relationship where two people can fluently communicate in the same language because they’re both broken. Bob has lost his infant son and Lily is estranged and hurt by her real father. Pain is a universal language. They’re both grieving loss and unsure how to move forward. No one really knows what they’re doing. Filmmaker Tracie Laymon has grappled with this grim experience. In an effort to reach out to her distant father…she put his name into Facebook. And was quickly friended…but wait…is this her Dad? Turns out it was not. He was a total stranger from Wichita, Kansas. He had the same name as Tracie’s father (who also lived in Wichita). Now…what? They stayed Facebook friends. They used the platform to correspond. They hit Like. And slowly…this stranger became her Facebook Dad. This movie offers a completely different social media message from what we have heard lately. It’s the noble opposite of what we’ve seen the last little while as well. It’s easy to think common good is eroding. It’s easy to think but perhaps it isn’t true. It all sounds so serious and perhaps it is. There’s a gravity to love; romantically we talk about falling in love, after all. Bob Trevino Likes It. I bet you will, too.

Thursday, July 10

Brick (Anytime / Netflix)

A couple (Tim and Olivia) whose apartment building is suddenly surrounded by a mysterious brick wall (overnight!) must work with their neighbors to find a way out. A German neo-noir mystery.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: JAWS @ 50: THE DEFINITIVE INSIDE STORY (9:00 P.M. / NAT GEO)

Alongside Steven Spielberg, JAWS @ 50 charts the extraordinary journey from Peter Benchley’s bestselling novel to one of the most iconic films ever made. Featuring rare archival footage and interviews with acclaimed Hollywood directors, top shark scientists, and conservationists, the documentary uncovers the behind-the-scenes chaos and how the film launched the summer blockbuster, inspired a new wave of filmmakers, and paved the way for shark conservation that continues today.
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Brewed a strong tea to watch Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story. It’s understandably puff piecey…it’s 50 years of Jaws. It’s all been said. However…there are 2 notable notables in this retrospective documentary. When Jaws came out in 1975, reviews were mixed. In this doc they showed a number of newspaper reviews. (Sadly they didn’t 360 degrees spin the newspapers before landing right side up.) And I was startled…they randomly threw in a Toronto Star review. 1975 Toronto is a deep cut. We didn’t even have the Blue Jays yet. (And the Star reviewer Clyde Gilmour nailed it…he called Jaws a masterpiece. He was one of the few that got the movie.) One 1975 negative-review was so weird. I hafta go back and freeze the still shot of the newspaper. Find out who the writer is. Dude wrote Jaws is cliched and formulaic with no surprises. What was he watching all through the 1960s to confidently print Jaws is formulaic?? Maybe he was thinking about other horror movies? Godzilla movies? Like…did we have shark attack movies before Jaws? We barely had (modern) movie cliches by 1975. (Was that probably a deadline response…gotta fill those column inches?) The other notable is the passion (and abiding affection) current filmmakers have for Jaws: J.J. Abrams, Emily Blunt, James Cameron, Cameron Crowe, George Lucas, Greg Nicotero, Steven Soderbergh, Guillermo del Toro, Robert Zemeckis, and more. Like, when have any of those creators been in the same room together? That’s what Jaws did, that’s part of Jaws’ legacy. Programming Note: This streams the following day on Disney+ and Hulu so on July 11.

Friday, July 11

Foundation: Season 3 (Anytime / Apple TV+)

Set 152 years after the events of season two, The Foundation has become increasingly established far beyond its humble beginnings while the Cleonic Dynasty’s Empire has dwindled. As both of these galactic powers forge an uneasy alliance, a threat to the entire galaxy appears in the fearsome form of a warlord known as “The Mule,” whose sights are set on ruling the universe by use of physical and military force as well as mind control. It’s anyone’s guess who will win, who will lose, who will live and who will die as Hari Seldon, Gaal Dornick, the Cleons and Demerzel play a potentially deadly game of intergalactic chess.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: DROP (ANYTIME / PEACOCK)

A widowed mother on her first date in years, who arrives at an upscale restaurant where she is relieved that her date, Henry is more charming and handsome than she expected. But their chemistry begins to curdle as Violet begins being irritated and then terrorized by a series of anonymous drops to her phone.
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Christopher Landon has been on a roll lately. 2 Happy Death Days (I can do 1 more than they gotta wrap up the series. I am not sticking around for like 5 or 7 movies. Look how wretched the Scream movies have become.) Freaky is freaky and sneaky good fun. I didn’t bother with Time Cut on Netflix, though. And Heart Eyes is streaming…will check that out soon. Drop is a very Christopher Landon movie: Violet (played by Meghann Fahy) experiences a terrifying ordeal when she starts receiving threatening messages via AirDrop during a date. Works for me. I’ll “Drop” by and check this out.

Saturday, July 12

Dog Man (Anytime / Peacock)

Saturday Morning Cartoons: When a police officer and his faithful police dog get injured in the line of duty, a harebrained but life-saving surgery fuses the two of them together — and Dog Man is born. As Dog Man learns to embrace his new identity, he must stop feline supervillain Petey the Cat from cloning himself and going on a crime spree.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: HEADS OF STATE (ANYTIME / PRIME VIDEO)

In the action-comedy Heads of State, the UK Prime Minister Sam Clarke (Idris Elba) and U.S. President Will Derringer (John Cena) have a not-so-friendly and very public rivalry that jeopardizes their countries’ “special relationship.” But when they become the targets of a powerful and ruthless foreign adversary—who proves more than a match for the two leaders’ security forces—they are begrudgingly forced to rely on the only two people they can trust: each other.
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Heads of State looks (and smells?) like a political remix of The Other Guys with none of Will Ferrell’s wit. Its acceptable as a streamer movie. It Is What It Is.

Sunday, July 13

Live Aid: When Rock ’n’ Roll Took On the World (9:00 p.m. / CNN)

CNN’s Live Aid: When Rock n’ Roll Took on the World dives into the behind-the-scenes story of the iconic 1985 concert, featuring legends such as Bob Geldof, Bono and Sting. It explores the event’s legacy of reshaping global charity efforts and political action and how one Christmas pop song sparked a movement that has directly (or indirectly) raised tens of billions of dollars for Africa. Bob Geldof, initially alone, then with Bono, challenged, embarrassed and embraced the world’s most powerful people, all in an attempt to address the unjust relationship between Africa and the West. Live Aid: When Rock n’ Roll Took on the World is a four-part tale of unimaginable tragedy, mad ambition, political machinations and amazing music.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: THE INSTITUTE: LIMITED SERIES (ANYTIME / MGM+)

The story of teen genius Luke Ellis, who is kidnapped and awakens at The Institute, a facility full of children who all got there the same way he did and who are all possessed of unusual abilities. In a nearby town, haunted former police officer Tim Jamieson has come looking to start a new life, but the peace and quiet won’t last, as his story and Luke’s are destined to collide.
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Limited Series Premiere: The Institute (2019 novel) was okay…not terrible, not amazing either. It’s not a Stephen King book I’d eagerly endorse. It’s basically King doing his version of MKUltra meets Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. (Stephen King is listed as an executive producer if that helps. While Jack Bender is the director…nerds know him from…well: From. This is his third Stephen King adaptation. Previously he directed Mr. Mercedes (highly recommended TV viewing) and Under The Dome (highly unrecommended TV viewing).) I’ll watch this—perhaps it’ll be serviceable?—but I not hoping for a strong adaptation. Programming Note: This premieres on July 13 on MGM+ at 9 p.m. with 2 episodes; eight episodes total. It’s a weekly series. For a smaller series like this…do you watch weekly or wait for the whole thing?