Taking a Quantum Leap you’ll dig this week’s #SetTheVCR: it’s got Jokes. And if not the Sandman will come to you with dreams. All win!
Monday, August 01
Not Okay (Anytime / Hulu & Disney+ Canada)
An aimless aspiring writer with no friends, no romantic prospects and – worst of all – no followers, fakes an Instagram-friendly trip to Paris in the hopes of boosting her social media clout.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: HONOR SOCIETY (ANYTIME / PARAMOUNT+)
A coming-of-age comedy explores the costs and rewards of being a tenaciously ambitious young woman in the modern world.
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McLovin and a Stranger Things kid are in this teen comedy. “Honor’s sole focus is getting into Harvard. Willing to do whatever it takes, Honor concocts a plan to take down her top three competitors, until things take a turn when she unexpectedly falls for her biggest competition.” Yup. I mean the Stranger Things kid is cute so you can see it. I dunno if Honor Society will make the honor roll but a teen movie is an A+ way to ease into a TV week.
Tuesday, August 02
Uncut Gems (Anytime / Peacock)
With his debts mounting and angry collectors closing in, a fast-talking New York City jeweler risks everything in hope of staying afloat and alive.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: QUANTUM LEAP: SEASONS 1-5 (ANYTIME / PEACOCK)
During a government experiment into time travel, a scientist finds himself trapped in the past, “leaping” into the bodies of different people on a regular basis and sorting out their problems whilst trying to get back home to his own time.
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“Theorizing that one can time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Accelerator, and vanished. He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own; and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide in this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and here. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself, leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap, will be the leap home…” A TV classic comes to Peacock! Unfortunately the Evil Leapers don’t appear until the final season. “The Evil Leapers are an evil organization, which works similar to Sam and his project. But this group is evil, and they leap, as part of their objective, in order to try to put wrong what once went right, often in opposition to the work of the Quantum Leap project.” How smart would it have been to focus this fall’s upcoming Quantum Leap reboot on the Evil Leapers. Now…if we can only get a streamer to offer us…Sliders.
Wednesday, August 03
Lightyear (Anytime / Disney+)
A sci-fi action adventure and the definitive origin story of Buzz Lightyear, the hero who inspired the toy.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: WHITNEY CUMMINGS: JOKES (ANYTIME / NETFLIX)
Whitney gets personal about sex injuries and dating younger men, spills on her online photo leak and waxes nostalgic about life before social media.
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This is Whitney ‘s fifth stand-up special, and her second for Netflix. And in addition to all her filthy jokes there is a surprising amount of physical comedy. That’s new from her. In a Variety interview she said she wanted to appeal to the broadest audience possible: “more nostalgic and emotionally cozy: no politics, no lecturing, no self-indulgence.” So if that’s your comedy jam; here ya go. Whitney Cummings has…Jokes.
Thursday, August 04
Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Ms. Marvel (Anytime / Disney+)
Go behind-the-scenes every step of the way with immersive footage from the making of the series, along with insightful interviews on set from the cast and crew of Ms. Marvel.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: The Orville: New Horizons – Episode 10
(Anytime / Hulu & Disney+ Canada)
Set 400 years in the future, The Orville: New Horizons finds the crew of the U.S.S. Orville continuing their mission of exploration, as they navigate both the mysteries of the universe and the complexities of their own interpersonal relationships.
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This season of Orville got a new name and as the season unfolded it made sense. This season was written more like a novel, with each episode being a chapter. And today’s 10th episode and season finale is the aptly titled Future Unknown. The show has not been renewed for a 4th season and plot wise…where do they go from here? Is the war with the Kaylon truly over? For now? All Good Things…come to an end. Programming Note: As announced during Comic-Con…all 3 seasons of The Orville will be added to Disney+ US on August 10.
Friday, August 05
Prey (Anytime / Hulu & Disney+ Canada)
The Hunt is back on!
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: THE SANDMAN: SEASON 1 (ANYTIME / NETFLIX)
There is another world that waits for all of us when we close our eyes and sleep – a place called the Dreaming, where The Sandman, Master of Dreams gives shape to all of our deepest fears and fantasies.
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The Sandman on Netflix is a dream come true for lots of nerds (and Cure fans!). (No this is not an Adam Sandler project…though he is also the Sandman on Netflix.). Rather the classic comics that blend myth, nightmares and dark fantasy have come to life thanks to executive producer by Neil Gaiman, showrunner Allan Heinberg, and David S. Goyer. (Indeed those 3 dudes wrote the first episode.) The Sandman is an adaptation of the DC Comics series of the same name, which spanned 10 trade paperbacks published between 1989 and 1996. “When the Sandman, aka Dream (Tom Sturridge) – the powerful cosmic being who controls all our dreams – is unexpectedly captured and held prisoner for over a century, he must journey across different worlds (literally into the depths of hell and back) and timelines to fix the chaos his absence has caused.” We got wizards, demons, rogue nightmares. So…cue Metallica…Enter Sandman.
Saturday, August 06
Nightmare Alley (Anytime / Crave)
An ambitious carny with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychiatrist who is even more dangerous than he is.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: THE OUTLAWS: SEASON 2 (ANYTIME / PRIME VIDEO)
In Season Two, the Outlaws still have time to serve on their sentences, but quickly realize the criminal underworld isn’t done with them yet – not by a long shot. This ragtag group of misfits’ shared past comes back to haunt them, in the shape of a terrifying London drug lord out for blood – The Dean.
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The Outlaws is a comedy thriller about a disparate group of lawbreakers thrown together to complete a community service sentence. And one of the Outlaws is Christopher Walken. Who like the other Outlaws isn’t able to move on from the criminal underworld. Always good fun to have Walken “dancing” with criminals.
Sunday, August 07
Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head (Anytime / Paramount+)
Beavis and Butt-Head are back and stupider than ever.
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SAMMY SUGGESTION: MY LIFE AS A ROLLING STONE (9 P.M. / EPIX)
Each episode will feature an intimate portrait of one of the band’s charismatic members (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, and the late Charlie Watts), exploring different dimensions of their personalities, their musical brilliance, and their cultural impact.
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Celebrate the band’s 60th anniversary with this 4-part BBC docuseries. Each episode is a portrait of one of the band’s iconic members: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, and the late Charlie Watts. The Watts episode is basically a memorial. That alone means this documentary will give fans…Satisfaction.
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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.
