New Macklemore Album Returns to Original Sound Gemini, this week’s best new album, is from Macklemore and is his first solo album since 2005, his previous two albums were collaborations with Ryan Lewis. The new album has multiple featured artists including a duet with Kesha and Skylar Grey. The songs are Macklemore’s usual brand of politics and self-exploration. The sound however, is laid back and much more relaxed than his previous chart topping albums. “Glorious” and “Good Old Days” are two of the most emotional and raw songs Macklemore has ever released. The album is fun to listen to and enjoyable even on its fifth listen. Most Anticipated Fall TV Premieres This week four of my favorite Fall shows will all be having their second season premieres. Check out “The Mick,” “This is Us,” “The Good Place,” and “Great News” for great stories and great casts. Star Wars Rebels Returns for Final Season Season 4 of “Star Wars Rebels” returns in October. Disney released an announcement on when to catch each episode this fall. After the initial five weeks, Rebels will take on a holiday hiatus before it comes back for the final installments left for the series. “Following a holiday break, Star Wars Rebels will be back in early 2018 for its final run of episodes leading up to the top-secret series finale,” the announcement said. You can see the schedule below:
New episodes will also air multiple times throughout the day starting at 12:30 AM, then 3:00 AM, 5:30 AM, 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM. Star Wars Forces of Destiny Returns with Half Hour Special Disney also announced that the short-form series “Star Wars Forces of Destiny” will begin to premiere new episodes after a 30-minute special on October 1st on Disney Channel. Check your local listings.
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When it was announced that Lady Gaga would perform the Pepsi Superbowl Halftime show this year fans were ecstatic to see Stefani Joanne Germanatta in her element again after so many years without new music. A new Netflix documentary called Gaga: Five Foot Two takes an incredibly personal look at what happened between August 16, 2016, when it was announced that Lady Gaga would star in the Bradley Cooper remake of “A Star Is Born” amidst trouble with then Fiancé Taylor Kinney all the way up to Superbowl Sunday 2017 and the announcement of her the tour for her fifth studio album, Joanne. Lady Gaga is front and center for one of the most intimate documentaries in cinema history that explores the creation of her newest album as well as all the projects she takes on in between. From American Horror Story: Roanoke to Tony Bennett’s 90th birthday, Gaga is seen time and time again dealing with the pressure of being a star while dealing with her undiagnosed chronic pain caused by Fibromyalgia. Gaga opens up about her Madonna feud as well as her relationship with prior exes and most recently her broken wedding engagement. The film, directed by Chris Mourkabel, doesn’t shy away from the tears and pain that Gaga goes through in the six months. Exposing it all (literally) Gaga puts herself in her music creating Joanne based on her aunt who died of Lupus at 19. The film is absolutely heart-wrenching at times and reintroduces the world to Gaga without the wigs and the makeup and the strength she radiates in front of the camera. Gaga: Five Foot Two is essential viewing for every Little Monster as well as for anybody dealing with anxiety, depression, and chronic pain. Individuals who haven’t had the chance to know Gaga, can get a glimpse of her world only on Netflix. In the past week news broke about Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow being shown the door by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. Trevorrow was announced to direct Star Wars episode 9 for a May 2019 release date back in 2015 and has been in pre-production for almost a year. Trevorrow was announced to be separating from Lucasfilm and not long after it was announced that J.J. Abrams, the director of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, would return to finish out the trilogy. Upon announcing Abram’s return Disney also announced that the final film in the trilogy would be pushed back seven months for a December release date. The script is currently being written by Abrams and Chris Terrio who wrote the screenplay for Warner Brother’s Batman Vs Superman. Since the announcement of the new direction Lucasfilm is taking fans have started to petition against Abram’s return, the common complaint being that the reboot was too much like episode four, directed 40 years ago by George Lucas. Paramount also contacted Disney stating that Abram’s would be breaking his contract with them that runs through the Summer of 2018. To make good, Paramount is asking that Disney pay them for the film loss they are taking. No word on how Disney will respond. Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens in theatres December 15, 2017 and is directed by Rian Johnson. An untitled Han Solo prequel film is being directed by Ron Howard after a similar firing of Phil Miller and Chris Lord who worked on the project for most of its duration. The untiled Han Solo stand-alone film will be released in May 2018 while Episode 9 is slated for December 2019. When co-creator Ryan Murphy approached the FX Network over eight years ago about making an anthology series set in America with an all-star cast of actors based on modern and period horror stories, he couldn't have, in any way, known the impact the series would have over its viewers in the years to come. Yet millions of viewers tune in each week to see his push-the-envelope gags, terrifying and gruesome murders, and bizarre story lines in what has become the biggest television series in the networks past 20 years. But is all of that over? American Horror Story: Cult opened to a 24 percent drop in viewers compared to its 2016 season Roanoke. The opening episode, which takes place after the events of last year’s election, was more horror than story as we meet Sarah Paulson and Allison Pill who play wife’s and are the main protagonists of the season. The main antagonist comes in the form of Evan Peters’ character, a Trump supporter who goes ballistic after the celebrity becomes president. The series features a lot of politics and almost sounds like Murphy wrote his script by copying and pasting the comments from a CNN post. The story doesn’t get fleshed out too much in the first episode as we are introduced to the main players, including newcomers Billie Lourd and Colton Hayes. Occasionally veering from the political rants, we get into the meat of the horror which includes a ton of clowns having sex and tormenting Paulson. Beyond that, the episode ends and the audience is left wondering what the episode is trying to set up and where the season could possibly go in its 11-episode run. Murphy’s stories have become repetitive and are always riddled with plot holes. This season seems to have started off no differently and fans are in for a safe and very timely season with very little in the way of true horror. |
Erick L. Graham Wood
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