A sad #SetTheVCR week? War of the Worlds returns and humans are fighting for their lives, Atlanta has begun its final season and Jerrod Carmichael wants to take this life. I toss in a Jo Koy comedy special incase this is a lot of darkness.
Monday, September 12
War of the Worlds: Season 3 (10pm / EPIX)
More on this Season is below, on Wednesday.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: THE ANTHRAX ATTACKS (ANYTIME / NETFLIX)
Days after 9/11, letters containing fatal anthrax spores spark panic and tragedy in the US.
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I actually don’t know what happened with the 2001 anthrax attacks. Coming so quickly as they did following 9/11 the media wasn’t cogent enough to articulate just what was happening. It was chaos trying to understand the news that fall; it didn’t help we’d just “survived” Y2K. Whew. In 2021 National Geographic TV aired The Hot Zone: Anthrax as a biopic telling of the anthrax events. (Season 1 of The Hot Zone…dealing with the Ebola outbreak in America is on Disney+ Canada. Season 2 has sadly not been added yet…it’s been over a year!). So since I don’t know what happened during the attacks where letters containing fatal anthrax spores sparked panic and sadly tragedy (5 died, 17 were injured.) I’m glad there is a handy documentary. I just hope this BBC Production didn’t…mail it in. (Work with me here, not like there are lots of anthrax puns I can use to…Bring The Noise!)
Tuesday, September 13
Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi’s Return (Anytime / Disney+)
A classic the behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: JO KOY: LIVE AT THE LOS ANGELES FORUM (ANYTIME / NETFLIX)
Jo Koy gushes about his relationship with his teenage son along with sharing the struggles of living with sleep apnea and more.
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Jo Koy’s fourth original special on Netflix was shot in the Los Angeles Forum. (Yes the location of Winning Time on HBO Max and where Legacy the Lakers docuseries on Hulu is primarily set.) The trailer documents the frictionless experience kids today enjoy…compares to the painful sorrow we constantly navigated. Man…that’s classic comedy (on more than one level). Netflix will follow Jo Koy with the following comedy specials: Patton Oswalt: We All Scream (September 20), Nick Kroll: Little Big Boy (September 27), Hasan Minhaj: The King’s Jester (October 4) and Gabriel Iglesias: Stadium Fluffy Live From Los Angeles (October 18). Whew. Like to laugh? You’ve come to the right place.
Wednesday, September 14
The Handmaid’s Tale: Season 5 (Anytime / Hulu)
Set in a dystopian future, a woman is forced to live as a concubine under a fundamentalist theocratic dictatorship.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: WAR OF THE WORLDS: SEASON 3
(9 P.M. / CBC & CBC GEM)
The third season of this dynamic adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic novel sees the war between the survivors and the aliens reach a new turning point as a strange phenomenon grips countless people across the globe.
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One of my Top 5 Can’t Wait Highly Anticipated Fall TV shows. War of the Worlds takes place in contemporary Britain and France so it serves as a re-imagining of the classic H. G. Wells novel (which took place in the 1890s.). The first season consists of eight episodes and premiered in France in October 2019. It obviously set up most of the world and of course the war where the humans are painfully perishing due to an alien attack. An eight episode second season premiered in France on May 17, 2021; that season concluded on June 7, 2021 but not before asking burning questions — like who are these alien attackers and why are they hell-bent on humanity’s destruction? War of the Worlds was renewed for a third season in July 2021 and it begins today (well in Canada: it aired on EPIX on Monday, September 12.). Season 2’s cliffhanger was fascinating. Without directly revealing the cliffhanger let’s focus on WWII: there are two ways to stop World War II. One…kill Hitler; win the war. That’s what “we” did in real life. Or…and this is a massive sci-fi OR…go back in time and stop WWII from happening. What are the consequences of that action?? Humanity prevailed and won WWII. In this new war with aliens will the humans win?? And what does that mean? Oh this is some delicious sci-fi: the classic Star Trek moral dilemma.
Thursday, September 15
13 Minutes (Anytime / Crave)
Four families in a Heartland town are tested in a single day when a tornado hits, forcing paths to cross and redefining the meaning of survival.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: ATLANTA: SEASON 4 (10 P.M. / FX)
Season 4 finds Earn, Alfred ‘Paper Boi’ Miles, Darius and Van back in their hometown. But the question is, has Atlanta changed, or have they?
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Are you prepared to say goodbye to Teddy Perkins? As for Season 3 which concluded on May 19, 2022 it asked if the show’s title…is Atlanta a place or a mindset? Taking place almost entirely in Europe, Earn, Paper Boi, Darius and Van were in the midst of a successful European tour. That meant new surroundings as outsiders; the classic awkwardness from previous seasons returned as well the difficulty of navigating success….successfully. Things are easier when you’re the underdog; they’re a whole lot different as a top dog. Leaving is easy; lots of pop songs and movies are about leaving home…leaving wives and more. But coming back home after you’ve left…that’s difficult. Especially if Atlanta is a mindset and you technically never left. Programming Note: Tonight’s premiere includes the first two episodes of the 10-episode final season. Hiro Murai directs the first episode. Yes!
Friday, September 16
Mayhem (Anytime / Tubi Canada)
A virus spreads through an office complex causing white-collar workers to act out their worst impulses. This overlooked gem is so fun!
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: MORBIUS (ANYTIME / PRIME VIDEO CANADA)
A virus spreads through an office complex causing white-collar workers to act out their worst impulses.
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Morbius is here to stink up the joint; I can’t even pull the trigger on Venom 2. Which Crap Carnival is worse?? Whatever. Sony’s non-Spider-Man Universe rolls on. Programming Note: This has been added to Netflix US since September 1.
Saturday, September 17
Do Revenge (Anytime / Netflix)
Drea and Eleanor agree to go after one another’s bullies: a comedic Strangers on a Train?!
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: ON THE COUNT OF THREE (ANYTIME / HULU)
Jerrod Carmichael makes his directorial debut and stars in On the Count of Three, a darkly comic feature about two best friends, Val and Kevin, on the last day of their lives.
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Jerrod Carmichael’s directorial debut! My hope is Jerrod’s burgeoning career as a director is more like Chris Rock’s Top Five and less…I Think I Love My Wife Chris Rock. This is a dark comedy about two friends who make a suicide pact but ah…before they check out they got some business to settle. Some of that business involves Fonzie. Always good to see Henry Winkler. I know a suicide pact sounds grim but as a stand up comic Jerrod Carmichael is often killing it so there should be some light in all this darkness.
Sunday, September 18
ESPN Films: Fate of a Sport (1 p.m. / ABC)
The documentary chronicles the story of lacrosse legend Paul Rabil and his fight to change the trajectory of the sport he loves by launching a new professional league, the Premier Lacrosse League.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: THE PEACOCK MONSTERS FILM FESTIVAL (MONSTER O’CLOCK / PEACOCK)
All the best monster movies and horror classics return to Peacock.
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Peacock has added a mad scientist’s pile of Universal Monsters and Hammer Films and so much more. This did this last year; I hope this becomes a scary tradition. The Universal Studios Monsters from the 1930s to the 1950s form a seminal foundation to our modern horror movies (with dubious sci-fi contributions.). While Hammer Films are known for Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. (Indeed their Frankenstein has a terrifying face and is more brutal than the iconic Boris Karloff performance which injected the monster with humanity.) Over 15 movies have been added so I suggest checking out 1933’s The Invisible Man…that’s Batman’s Joker 100%! Anything with Peter Cushing or Vincent Price. It Came From Outer Space from 1953 is like a long creepy Twilight Zone episode. The alien reveal scene is fantastic and brimming with terror. So if you’re in the mood for classic Gothic screaming, evil lairs and labs and of course loud frightening thunder and full moons Peacock is getting you ready for Halloween season.
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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.
