Holy smokes – three blog posts in three days! It’s like a blogging renaissance. I haven’t done this since the heady early days when I used to blog five days a week. LOL – don’t expect this frequency to continue; soon enough, I’m sure I’ll slow down to a more manageable schedule. But right now I have a backlog of content and since I’ve given myself permission to blog less I find that I’m actually enjoying it more. Funny how that works out.
Of course one blog post that I always look forward to doing is the weekly pop culture roundup. Now that the holidays are over, the pop culture business has picked up steam and there’s a lot more going on. So get yourself caught up on everything that you might have missed with this look at the week in pop.
Television
- Archer will move to FXX for season 8.
- Golden Girls is coming to Hulu. Fingers crossed they do some sort of pop-up in NYC to promote this.
- Perhaps jealous of the success of Fargo, the Coen brothers are making their own TV series.
- The CW is rebooting Charmed.
- The CW renewed all their superhero shows and Supernatural, as well as Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Jane the Virgin.
- Constantine is getting an animated series on CW Seed.
- Aziz Ansari will make his SNL hosting debut on January 21st.
- CBS orders more episodes of Kevin Can Wait, Man with a Plan, and The Great Indoors.
- Conan may move to a weekly show, just not right away. Or it could go digital. Or could go to YouTube. It’s all up for grabs apparently.
- Conan may be spinning off its Clueless Gamer segment as a standalone show.
- James Van der Beek will play Diplo in a TV series about the DJ’s life. For reals.
- Connie Britton says that she is in “for the duration” on the next season of Nashville.
- Nashville is getting its own aftershow called, obviously, Nashchat.
- We have a premiere date for Showtime’s Twin Peaks revival.
- Kristen Dunst to star in a dark comedy series for AMC from the director of The Lobster.
- An oral history of the making of O.J.: Made in America.
- Kathryn Hahn is in talks to star in a Netflix drama series about fertility treatments.
- Jerrika Hinton, Sosie Bacon, Daniel Zovatto and Raymond Lee have all joined Alan Ball’s new HBO drama. Holly Hunter will star.
- The Magic School Bus will be making a comeback on Netflix.
- Showtime has renewed The Affair and picks up Jay Pharoah’s comedy.
- ABC announces midseason premiere dates; the Thursday night lineup is delayed because of a presidential inauguration special. #ThanksTrump
- 10 famous TV shows and the actors that were originally envisioned as the leads. I cannot believe the world was almost denied the greatness of Kyle Chandler as Coach Taylor. And Thomas Jane needs a new agent.
- James Corden won’t be hosting the Carpool Karaoke spinoff.
- Cher will star in a Lifetime movie on Flint’s water crisis.
- Family Guy paid tribute to Carrie Fisher before Sunday’s episode.
- Rob Thomas give an update on The Lost Boys TV series.
- CNN is doing an eight-part series on The History of Comedy.
- Girl Meets World; world is disinterested. The series is cancelled after three seasons.
- Kevin Smith will direct an episode of The Goldbergs focusing on Tim Burton’s Batman.
- truTV renews Those Who Can’t.
- The Bachelor twins Emily and Haley Ferguson are getting their own spin-off on Freeform.
- Jenna Dewan Tatum will host World of Dance on NBC.
Movies
- I didn’t think the already stacked cast of Black Panther could get any better, but then they added Sterling K. Brown.
- Netflix is getting in on the JonBenét Ramsey hoopla with a new documentary.
- Martis Scorsese is giving up on his Frank Sinatra biopic.
- Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams will star in the comedy Game Night.
- The BAFTA nominations are out; the Brits like La La Land too.
- Moonlight’s Trevante Rhodes has joined the cast of The Predator. Keegan-Michael Key also signed on.
- Channing Tatum and Tom Hardy are in talks for the crime drama Triple Frontier.
- How to make a Big Kahuna Burger from Pulp Fiction:
- J.J. Abrams is out of the reboot business.
- Ralph Fiennes and Hugh Laurie will add some British to Will Ferrell’s Sherlock Holmes movie.
- Michael Keaton said that he bailed on Batman Forever because of the terrible script.
- Shannon Purser (Barb from Stranger Things) has landed the titular role in Sierra Burgess is a Loser.
- Tom Hiddleston realizes how cringe-worthy his Golden Globes speech was.
- Fans have theories for everything now – including Shrek.
- Moana sing-alongs are coming to theaters.
- The main villain of Wonder Woman has been revealed.
- A memorable scene in The Lord of the Rings trilogy was the result of actual pain.
- Willem Dafoe boards Murder on the Orient Express.
- The Onion has signed a three picture deal with Lionsgate.
Trailers
- Beauty and the Beast:
- The Handmaid’s Tale:
- Bates Motel, the fifth and final season:
- Jim Gaffigan: Cinco:
- I Am Not Your Negro:
- Gold:
- Better Call Saul, season three:
- The Girl With All The Gifts:
- The Good Fight:
- Dying Laughing:
- Rings:
- Guerrilla:
- Frontier:
- The anthology series Urban Myths – WTF with Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson?!?:
- Genius:
- Archer, season 8:
- All Nighter:
- Riverdale:
- Santa Clarita Diet:
- Witness for the Prosecution:
- Cult of Chucky:
- Embeds:
- Don’t Knock Twice:
- The Lure:
- Baywatch international trailer:
- Girls season 6:
Music
- U2 is taking The Joshua Tree out on tour.
- Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Weeknd join U2 at Bonnaroo.
- Frank Ocean, Nine Inch Nails, and Tame Impala are headlining the Panorama Festival. 2017 is upping its concert game.
- Beyoncé interviewed her sister Solange.
- A new David Bowie video arrived on the eve of what would have been his 70th birthday.
- The Shins are releasing their first new album in five years.
- Both The Shins and Spoon dropped new songs.
- Rob Thomas says the song “Smooth” was inspired by George Michael.
- The xx are going out on tour.
- Snoop Dogg gave his pal Willie Nelson an appropriate Christmas gift:
- Armstrong State University in Georgia is offing a course in OutKast studies.
- How musicians settle beefs now – boxing matches.
- Ed Sheeran confirms that he’s doing Carpool Karaoke.
- The soundtrack to Singles is getting a big re-release and my 90s loving heart couldn’t be happier.
- Japandroids dropped a new song.
- Billy Joel ranked his favorite Billy Joel songs. He and I do not agree.
- Dropkick Murphys have a new album.
- Kacey Musgraves teamed up with Foy Vance on a song for Live By Night.
Books
- John Hodgman has a new book coming out in October.
- George R.R. Martin gives an update on the status of The Winds Of War. (it still isn’t finished).
Stand-up
- Amy Schumer’s next stand-up special will be on Netflix.
Theater
- A Cruel Intentions musical is coming to NYC in February.
- Mark Ruffalo will return to Broadway in The Price. Guess who already scored tickets 🙂
- The national touring cast of Hamilton has been announced.
- Sara Bareillis is in talks to join the Broadway cast of Waitress in the lead role. Bareillis wrote the songs for the musical (which I will eventually get around to reviewing).
- Wayne Brady will play Aaron Burr (sir) in the Chicago production of Hamilton.
I assume this is how they will stage the duel from now on.
- The original concept for David Bowie’s Lazarus musical was kind of bonkers (in a good way).
- A new version of The Lightning Thief will play off-Broadway.
Odds and Ends
- Fans can now vote for new Monopoly tokens. It’s a very weird assortment, from emojis to a typewriter and rotary phone.
- I don’t know if we’re actually being Rickrolled, but Rick Astley is making a new beer.
- Los Angeles will be the home for George Lucas’ art museum.
- There is an American Psycho-inspired line of skincare.
- David Blaine accidentally shot himself in the mouth while doing a magic trick.
- 17 people were arrested in connection to Kim Kardashian West’s robbery in France.
- Nicki Minaj confirms that she and Meek Mill are dunzo.
- Flip or Flop’s Tarek and Christina El Moussa are officially getting a divorce.
- Tilikum, the killer whale featured in the documentary Blackfish, has died.
- Actor Om Puri has died; he was 66.
Mashups and Supercuts
- Honey, I Blew Up the Kid reimagined as a Godzilla movie:
- Public domain songs with Jamie Foxx and James Corden:
- Jim Carrey joined Alice Cooper on stage for the Maui Food Bank benefit:
- Neil Patrick Harris and James Corden have a Broadway riff-off:
- By popular request on Twitter, Mark Hamill is reading Donald Trump quotes as The Joker:
- Home Alone with blood is less fun:
- Postmodern Jukebox puts a vintage jazz spin on “Ice Ice Baby”:
- An 80s remix of Calvin Harris and Rihanna’s “This Is What You Came For”:
- And finally, a trailer for Hidden Fences, the movie that conflates Hidden Figures and Fences as was done at the Golden Globes:
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