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[shadowkat]

1. More television shows... Entertainment Weekly aka EW online does their breakdown of fifty-six shows returning or new this year

[And folks on FB love Manifest's ending. I don't know, I gave up during the second season - anyone think I should go back to it?]

[And regarding Dancing with the Stars? Guess who two of the contestants are? Allyson Hannigan (Willow from Buffy, and well How I Met Your Mother) and Miro Sorvino. I did a double take regarding Hannigan.)

Here's the one's I'm checking out on the list (there's no way I'm looking at all 56, and honestly, most of them are reality shows, or cop procedurals, which bore me.)

* Fall of the House of Usher (Mike Flanagan's take on Edgar Allen Poe, and I'm a fan of both, so will check it out. I still have to check out Midnight Mass, Midnight Club, Gerald's Game, and Doctor Sleep). [ October 12 - Netflix - then he's moving over to Amazon and adapting King's series Dark Tower as a miniseries to the screen.]

* Virgin River - Returns to Netflix September 7 (adapted from Robyn Carr's novels.)

* The Changeling (Apple TV - September 8) Adapted from the Victor LaValle horror novel of the same name. follows rare book dealer Apollo (LaKeith Stanfield, also an executive producer) and librarian Emma (Clark Backo), two bibliophiles who fall in love and start a family. When Emma mysteriously vanishes in the aftermath of a horrific act of violence following the birth of their son, Apollo embarks on a journey to find her in an alternate New York where ancient European folklore and magic converge.

*. The Other Black Girl on Hulu September 13 - adapted from the book of the same name (the one Wales was trying to get me to read earlier in the year and a friend on DW didn't like.). Based on Zakiya Dalila Harris' book, The Other Black Girl follows Nella (Sinclair Daniel), an editorial assistant at Wagner Books, as her career in publishing takes a turn when Hazel (Ashley Murray) joins her company. Nella's excitement about having another Black coworker starts to dissipate when she thinks Hazel (and potentially Wagner Books as a whole) might be involved in something dangerous. [ It's horror and Wales reports the book was creepy.]

* The Morning Show (I am considering skipping over S2 and watching S3.)
We've moved past the Mitch [Steve Carell] story, so we pivoted away from the sexual misconduct, but we're very still very much focused on women's autonomy, abortion rights, and the ways women's power is being challenged right now," director and executive producer Mimi Leder says. Season 3 will also introduce a handful of new players, from Jon Hamm's tech billionaire Paul Marks to Nicole Beharie joining the cast as Christina Hunter, a gold-medalist-turned-news-anchor.

* Loki S2 - Season 2 will journey from the glitz of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair to the sprawling halls of the Time Variance Authority, also introducing new characters like tech expert OB (Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan, in yet another multiverse-hopping role). Executive producer Kevin Wright promises that there's even more mischief afoot.

* Lessons in Chemistry -what do you get when you combine a best-selling novel, an Oscar-winning actress, and a stylish 1950s setting? Solution: Lessons in Chemistry, a delightful Apple TV+ drama that blends chemistry and cooking to explosive effect. Bonnie Garmus' debut novel won over readers when it hit shelves last year, and now, series creator Lee Eisenberg (The Office, Jury Duty) is bringing it to the small screen with an eight-episode miniseries. Brie Larson stars as Elizabeth Zott, a whip-smart scientist who launches a second act as a TV cooking show host. [ Oct 13 - Apple TV]

* Julia S2 - Nov 16, MAX

* All the Light We Cannot See - Nov 2, NEtflix

* The Buccaneers - Nov 8 - Apple TV

* Fargo - November 10, Hulu and F/X
Break out your best winter coat, because Fargo is going "back to our roots" for its fifth season, executive producer Warren Littlefield tells EW. "We start small," he explains, "and then, due to people taking a number of bad forks in the road, making bad decisions, it escalates." The fifth season of FX's Emmy award-winning anthology series, created by Noah Hawley, follows Dorothy "Dot" Lyon (Juno Temple), a seemingly normal housewife whose mysterious past comes back to haunt her after she lands herself in hot water with local authorities. With the fearsome North Dakota sheriff Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm) hot on her trail, plus curious deputies Witt Farr (Lamorne Morris) and Indira Olmstead (Richa Moorjani), Dot must fight to protect herself and her family — with the begrudging help of her stern mother-in-law Lorraine Lyon (Jennifer Jason Leigh) — by any means necessary.

* Doctor Who - November, Disney +
Veteran Doctor Who stars David Tennant and Catherine Tate return for three special episodes to mark the science fiction show's 60th anniversary. New cast members include Neil Patrick Harris in an as-yet-unannounced role, Yasmin Finney as another mysterious character called Rose – the same name as a character once portrayed on the show by Billie Piper – and Ncuti Gatwa, who is set to replace Tennant as the titular two-hearted time traveler. "To get to have another proper runaround was a joy I never really imagined," Tennant told EW, in an interview which took place prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike. "I just hope I look as fast as I did in the 2000s!"



2. Television this weekend...

* Next in Fashion on Netflix, Season 1. Kind of a professional version of Project Runway, except more along the lines of Great British Bake Off (let's everyone hug) and less (the Apprentice - everyone is an asshole). These aren't amateurs, these are professionals - on a global level. And the contestants are from around the world. So the fashion is well sewn and not clunky, with professional runway models, and an actual audience. I don't like a lot of it - but I'm a pragmatist when it comes to clothes - it has to be comfortable, and be flattering. Most fashion is neither for me - and only for people who are shaped like fashion models - or clothes hangers.

The winners of the challenge for streetwear - were for well...this:



And just no. Not my cup of tea.

This episode had a ton of unnecessarily drama because the judges couldn't make up their mind over which designers should go home. When it was kind of obvious. And clearly just a contrived excuse to keep everyone around for the next challenge.

But it's fun to watch while doing something else.

However, they provided some good advice - which is - you only need one yes. So don't let the rejection and the no's kill you. And it's very subjective.

* Foundation on Apple TV - I decided to go back to it, after I slept through the first two episodes last year. It's better. And it gets progressively better as we go. Apparently S2 is really good. Also, I like Lee Pace.

It's adapted from Issac Asimov's Foundation series, which I've never read.
So no clue how close to the original it is. I'm on episode five now.
And the Clone's are kind of interesting - in how each is their own individual. Pace is in a way playing various versions of the same character, as is Terence Mann.

Also the protagonist is interesting - Salvor, who is dealing with the Terminus and weird statue.

* Good Omens S2 - I'm kind of stretching it out. I'm on the fifth episode? There's about eight, I think? It's on Prime. The plot is goofy, but the characters are fun, as is the world-building. I'm not sure Gaiman's plots ever work well, I'm always handwaving them for characters.

3. Stop Making Sense by the Talking Heads - is coming back again for the reunion of the Band, 40 years later


The film, which was directed by Jonathan Demme, has been restored from its long-lost original negatives and this new version will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Monday, then play in regular and IMAX theaters later this month. An expanded audio album, out Sept. 15, now includes the entire concert set, with two tracks omitted from the movie: “Cities” and a medley of “Big Business” and “I Zimbra.” Refreshing its peak performance, the band hopes to draw one more generation of fans to its irresistible funk grooves and youthful ambitions.

“Stop Making Sense” is both a definitive 1980s period piece and a prophecy. Its staging helped reshape pop concerts in its wake. The music hot-wired rock, funk and African rhythms, while the fractured, non sequitur lyrics glanced at, among many other things, disinformation (“Crosseyed and Painless”), evangelicalism (“Once in a Lifetime”), authoritarianism (“Making Flippy Floppy”) and environmental disaster (“Burning Down the House”).

“Sometimes we write things and we don’t know what they’re about until afterwards,” Byrne said. “There’s a sense of a premonition. I’ve looked at things I’ve written and I go, ‘Oh. That’s about something that happened in my life after I wrote the song.’”

There had been choreographed soul revues and big-stage concert spectacles long before Talking Heads mounted their 1983 tour supporting the album “Speaking in Tongues.” But Byrne envisioned something different: a performance influenced by the stylized gestures of Asian theater and the anti-naturalistic, avant-garde stage tableaus of Robert Wilson. (Talking Heads hired Wilson’s lighting designer, Beverly Emmons.)

Byrne storyboarded each song. The first part of the show demystified the production, with backstage equipment visible and a stage crew wheeling in instruments and risers as the band expanded with each song. Then, with everyone in place, the concert turned into a surreal dance party, capped by Byrne’s appearance in an oversized, squared-off, very floppy suit — an everyday American variation on the geometric costumes of Japanese Noh theater.

Demme’s cameras were poised to catch every goofy move and appreciative glance between musicians. Now that most big concerts are video-ready extravaganzas, that might seem normal. In 1983, it was startling.

Only a few years earlier, Talking Heads were unlikely candidates to mount a tautly plotted rock spectacle. When the band made its reputation playing the Bowery club CBGB, its members dressed like preppies and looked self-conscious and nervous.

Formed in the art-school atmosphere of the Rhode Island School of Design, Talking Heads always had conceptual intentions. In a video interview from his studio, the keyboardist and guitarist Jerry Harrison said, “When I joined the band, I knew that we were going to be an important band, and that we would be artistically successful. I had no idea what kind of commercial success we’d have. All of us were pretty familiar with the art world, where there are painters who never in their lifetime were financially secure. And that was our goal at that point.”



For more - Go HERE (it is under a paywall.)

4. Update on the Wales situation from Last post...

Wales: I'm really sorry about yesterday.
Me: I don't want to hear an apology. I just want it to stop. So you can call me, and we can meet up, but I'm cutting off the texts. No more text-messaging.
Wales: Okay, sorry.

There was a cartoon on FB about text-messaging, and one of the comments - was : "Why don't people just call each other - are they afraid of oral communication?"

Exactly.

I told mother I disliked texting.

Mother: Weird, considering you are a writer.
Me: Texting isn't writing or letter writing. It's quick and people don't think it through. Also tone is missing. So you can't always tell what someone is saying.
Mother: I proof.
Me: Most people don't. It's chatty. And there's no time to flush it out.
And I can't tell the tone. Also Wales doesn't proof, she doesn't edit.
She just texts without thinking.

My brother is better at it, as is my niece and sisinlaw, and mother. Also cjl. They can do it. But Wales shouldn't. And I need to be careful with it.