Category Archives: Movies

Sep 04 2026
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Books, DVDs, Movies, Music, Pop Culture, Sports, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

What to Watch, and More! Week of Sept. 4 – 10

A month of ‘Star Trek,’ Spider-Man goes for two, & Dennis Quaid’s water war

Capt. Kirk, Spock and the whole “Star Trek” gang are on a month-long mission for MeTV

FRIDAY, Sept. 4
Mayday
Ryan Reynolds and Sir Kenneth Branagh star in this comedic Cold War adventure (Apple TV).

Films on Film
TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz kicks off this new series devoted to movies and the stories behind them, beginning with a documentary about actor Charles Grodin followed by several of his films, including Midnight Run (8 p.m., TCM).

Spider-Man x 2
With the new Spider-Man movie setting box-office records, maybe it’s time to catch up on its predecessors, 2019’s Far From Home and 2021’s No Way Home. Both are streaming today! (Disney+).


Water Wars
Dennis Quaid narrates this documentary about a clash between ranchers, farmers and billionaires in a high-stakes legal war over water rights—blue gold—in Texas (Prime Video).

SATURDAY, Sept. 5
Surviving the Silence: The Roxane Gay Story
Dramatization of a real-life experience of sexual abuse and trauma, based on a bestselling first-person account (8 p.m., Lifetime).

Month of Star Trek
Celebrate an entire month hailing the 60th anniversary of the classic sci-fi space show with Star Trek Specials, a night of special programming from decades past, including Leonard Nimoy’s Star Trek Memories, a 1991 25th anniversary special, episode highlight and more (11 p.m., MeTV).

SUNDAY, Sept. 6
A Tale of Two Cities
New version of the classic Charles Dickens tale (above)—about love, sacrifice and injustice during the French Revolution—stars Kit Harrington, François Civil and Mirren Mack (MGM+).

MONDAY, Sept. 7
Top of the World
Documentary about the Windows on the World, the iconic restaurant atop the World Trade Center that became a symbol of New York City’s resilience after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 (8 p.m., CNN).

America’s Tailgate on CBS
Celebrate the new football season with this Nashville-based Labor Day special featuring performances by Sheryl Crow and John Legend, cooking segments, player highlights and superfans. Hosted by Nate Burleson (8 p.m., CBS).

The Drop: A Snowfall Saga
New drama series set in Los Angeles in the ‘90s as two characters (Gail Bean and Isaiah John) seek reinvention as West Coast rap rises from the era’s crack epidemic (9 p.m., FX and Hulu).

TUESDAY, Sept. 8
Untold Mr. T: I Pity the Fool
Before the gold chains, Mohawk and Hollywood fame of The A-Team and Rocky III, there was Laurence Tureaud. Find out how he became the Hollywood icon (above) known around the world as Mr. T (Netflix).

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 9
Last Seen
Australian thriller series about a detective (Patrick Brammall) searching for his long-lost daughter (Apple TV).

Call My Agent! The Movie
French comedy drama follows a former casting agent turned director who must reunite with her old team when her lead actor drops out of the role (Netflix).

THURSDAY, Sept. 10
A Killer Story
Three-part docuseries examines a polarizing murder case—about a woman accused of killing her ex-husband and his girlfriend in 2002—that spanned more than two decades and captured national attention (HBO).

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives
After four seasons, how many secrets, and how many wives, can there be? Find out when season five hits tonight (Hulu).

BRING IT HOME

If you missed it on PBS, now you can get it on DVD. Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World is an acclaimed documentary about the late Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who often rhapsodized the natural world. Celebs including Oprah Winfrey, Steve Buscemi and Stephen Colbert read her words.

Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner star in Carolina Caroline (Magnolia Home Entertaiment), a steamy action thriller about a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde. With Kara Sedgwick, and a soundtrack with country tunes from a Kitty Wells, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams.

Comic-book fans, take wing with Batman: Part 1: Knightfall (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment), the first entry in a three-part animated adaptation of the Dark Knight’s DC Comics adventures in the 1990s. Anson Mount (from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) is the voice of Bruce Wayne/Batman.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Alphabet of Oddities (Abrams) is a collection of fanciful, sometimes whimsical, and often frightful A-to-Z drawings by Ronald Porcelli, illustrating an alphabet’s worth of imaginary beasties like the Boozoins, the Ice Wolf and Fxchopxtinks.

What’s a Slavic myth? Authors Noah Charney and Svetlana Slapšak uncover fascinating roots of wide-ranging influence in The Slavic Myths (Thames & Hudson), tracing tales of the Indo-European ethnolinguistic group through many worldwide offshoots, including stories of vampires, werewolves, witches, gods, goddesses and other creatures.

This year marks the 26th anniversary of 9.11, the fateful event that became the most devastating event in the United States since Pearl Harbor. In All the Presidents’ Wars (W.W. Norton), author Peter Bergen shows how the “war on terror” stretched across the presidencies of Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden.

Inventing the Wild West (McFarland) presents a fascinating breakdown of how the “historical” West of yore became romanticized into myth—by television, movies and folklore—that far overshadowed reality. So saddle up, pardner!

Aug 28 2026
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Books, DVDs, History, Movies, Music, Pop Culture, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

What to Watch, and More! Week of Aug. 28 – Sept 3.

“The Whisper Man,” Rita Hayworth rocks & all about Billy the Kid

Robert De Niro, Adam Scott and Michelle Monaghan star in ‘The Whisper Man.’

FRIDAY, Aug. 28
The Whisper Man
When his eight-year-old son is abducted, a widowed crime writer looks to his estranged father, a retired former police detective, for help, only to discover a connection with the decades-old case of a convicted serial killer. Starring Robert De Niro, Adam Scott and Michelle Monaghan (Netflix).

Four Hands, Two Sonatas
South Korean drama about young high schoolers training to become concert pianists (Netflix).

SATURDAY, Aug. 29
Saluting Rita Hayworth
It’s a full day of flicks starring the glamorous redhead from Hollywood’s “golden age,” including “Only Angels Have Wings,” “Gilda,” “Cover Girl” (above) and “You’ll Never Get Rich” (TCM).

SUNDAY, Aug. 30
Robot Chicken Adult Swim Special
When every iconic animated character in Adult Swim’s history (from Aqua Teen Hunger Force to Smiling Friends and, of course, Robot Chicken) boards a cruise ship to celebrate a quarter century on the air, it can only end in a courtroom! (Midnight, Adult Swim).

MONDAY, Aug. 31
History’s Greatest Mysteries
Host Laurence Fishburn explores the wave of anthrax attacks in 2001 in the wake of 9/11, which caused widespread panic in the U.S. postal system and killed five people (9 p.m., History).

TUESDAY, Sept. 1
Billy the Kid
This “American Experience” doc tells the true story of Henry McCarty, the Wild West outlaw known as “Billy the Kid” who outfoxed jailers and captivated the nation with his string of nearly unbelievable escapes…until he met up with sheriff Pat Garrett (9 p.m., PBS).

9/11 United We Stand: 25 Years Later
Documentary about how sports, music, movies and comedy all helped heal the wounds of the devastating terrorist attack on America, with Pete Davidson, Derek Jeter, Billy Crystal, Matthew Broderick, Jon Bon Jovi and others (9 p.m., ABC).

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 2
Driven
Watch all three seasons of the steamy romantic series about a girl with a tragic past (Olivia Grace Applegate) who falls in love with a bad-boy race car driver (Casey Deidrick) (Netflix).

THURSDAY, Sept. 3
Chad Powers
Season two of the football comedy begins, with stars Glen Powell, Eli Manning and Steve Zahn (Hulu).

Arena Access with Mariah Rose
Sports content creator Mariah Rose takes viewers inside the arenas of major teams and sporting events, exploring the culture, food and community that make them shrines for fans (Tubi).


Clash of the Thundermans
New live-action kid-centric superhero comedy series (above) stars Maya Lee Clark as a young girl who suddenly discovers new and unpredictable powers (7 p.m., Nickelodeon).

BRING IT HOME

Put some vroooooom in the room with The Fast and the Furious: The 25th Anniversary Edition (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment). It’s a fresh remaster of the classic 2001 film (starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Michelle Rodriguez) about street racing, muscle cars, heists and spies that laid the foundation for a franchise expansion into more movies, TV series, toys and games.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Capturing a dramatic moment in history, Timothy W. Ryback’s 53 Days: How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy (Grove Atlantic) examines how dur furher used the German Constitution to turn a democratic republic into an authoritarian state, one that became Nazi Germany. Essential reading for WWII history buffs…and anyone interested in the contemporary parallels.

He’s a good boy! Young readers will lap up Dragon Dog (Random House Studio), about a fierce pooch cross-wired with a dragon who befriends a little lost lamb. The takeaway: Strength and softness can coexist.

Behind every successful music maker is a person behind the scenes: the producer. In Making Music (Akishic), Tape Op magazine founder Larry Crane shines the spotlight on the studio whizzes who’ve manned the control boards for the Beatles, Taylor Swift, Willie Nelson, David Bowie and many more acts, talking about the ins and outs and highs and lows of recording.

David Campany’s Walker Evans (Thames & Hudson) is an insightful study of one of the most quintessential American photographers. Evans, born in 1903, was both a pioneer and a precursor for the many ways photography could communicate. He was best known for his work documenting the effects of the Great Depression. 

Fine art lovers, here you go: Color Unbound: Matisse 1941-1954 (Thames & Hudson) collects artwork from the famed French artist’s final years, at home and in his studio.

Take a deep dive into the jungle with The Foundations of Tarzan (McFarland), Jon C. Scott’s in-depth analysis of the King of the Jungle—created by author Edgar Rice Burroughs—his vine-swinging roots in myth and other literature, and his many later incarnations.

NOW HEAR THIS

Classic rock fans, dig these new Blu-ray audio re-mix releases of ‘70s superstar albums. There’s the smooth balladry of singer-songwriter James Taylor (Gorilla), the mellow tones of former Bread frontman David Gates (his first two solo albums First and Never Let Her Go), the guitar-driven rock of The James Gang (Miami) and the pop jazz of flautist Herbie Mann (Hold On, I’m Coming). Available separately or in a set at rhino.com.

Aug 21 2026
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Books, DVDs, Movies, Pop Culture, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

What to Watch, and More! Week of Aug. 21 – Aug. 27

Monsters mash, NFL’ers nosh & a sneak peek at the new ‘Grand Theft Auto’

King Kong, a mega shark and dinos do the monster mash on TBS.

FRIDAY, Aug. 21
9/11: Reunited
Survivors of one of modern history’s darkest days tell their stories and reflect on their unlikely bond (9 a.m., National Geographic).

Monster Movie Marathon
Buckle up for the outsized monster-mash thrills and chills of Jurassic World: Dominion, Kong: Skull Island and Meg 2: The Trench (8 p.m., TBS).

SATURDAY, Aug. 22
The Las Vegas Songwriters Festival
More than 100 hitmaking country and Americana tunesmiths—including Bob DiPiero, Dean Dillon, Billy Montana and Keith Stegall—come to the Glitter City to spin their musical tales in this showcase event (check listings, The Heartland Network).

The Run for a Million
Fast-paced equestrian competition where 16 riders guide horses through a precise pattern of circles, spins and stops in pursuit of reining’s highest honor—and $1 million prize (8 p.m., CBS).

SUNDAY, Aug. 23
Celebrating Katherine Hepburn
Spend all day and most of the night with a slate of classic films, including Little Women (1933), Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), Rooster Cogburn (1975) and more (begins 8 a.m, TCM).

MONDAY, Aug. 24
Revival
New supernatural horror series—based on a comic book about the dead coming back to life in a small town—stars Melanie Scrofano, Romy Weltman and David James Elliott (Netflix).


NFL Hometown Eats
Celebrity superfans Eva Longoria, Joel McCale and Rebel Wilson, above, huddle with NFL players to explore the best restaurants around their home stadiums (Roku Channel).

TUESDAY, Aug. 25
Jeopardy! Masters
Former champs of the brainy game show return in a tournament to see who’ll bring home the grand prize of half a million dollars (8 p.m., Hulu).

Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World
American Masters doc about the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, with readings of her work by Helena Bonham Carter, Stephen Colbert, Steve Buscemi and Oprah Winfrey (9 p.m., PBS).

The Deb
Actress Rebel Wilson makes her directorial debut and stars in this  musical comedy. above, about a pair of cousins hoping to attend a debutante ball in a small Australian town (available on demand).

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 26
The Last Sunrise
A college student with a chronic illness finds romance with a young man on a summer vacation before her condition suddenly worsens and everything begins to unravel. Starring Maia Reficco, Eva Longoria and Fernando Lindez (Prime Video).

THURSDAY, Aug. 27
Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look
Gamers can get a sneak peak of the features, storylines and characters of the newest edition of the hit videogame ahead of its on-sale date of Nov. 19 (Netflix).

The Undeclared War
Tonight begins season two of the British thriller starring Simon Pegg, about a counterintelligence team dealing with the devastating aftermath of a Russian cyber-attack (Peacock).

The Adults
Season two of the comedy series about 20-somethings in New York trying to navigate friendship, jobs, love, work and family (9 p.m., FX).

READ ALL ABOUT IT


It’s here today. But will it be gone tomorrow? Historian James Crawford’s The Vanishing Earth (Bloomsbury) examines how humanity has taken more from the planet than this ol’ globe could ever give back, exacting an enormous toll on resources like rock, metal, sand, water…and even our thoughts. What’s been the cause of our insatiable appetites, and can we possibly save our relationship with nature?

BRING IT HOME

The Sheep Detectives (Alliance Home Entertainment) is a heartwarming whodunnit—about sheep who become detectives, duh!—starring Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson. Find out why this all-ages charmer was a critically hailed success all over the world.

Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas star in Power Ballad (Lionsgate Home Entertainment), about a past-his-prime wedding singer and a fading boy-band star, and what happens when they have a hit song. It’s a toe-tapping, feel-good buddy comedy.

Saddle up with Marshals (Alliance Home Entertainment), season one of the hit CBS series starring Luke Grimes—a long way away from his previous roles in two Fifty Shades movies—as a former U.S. Navy SEAL now in a special group of U.S. Marshals in Montana.

Season three of Reacher (Alliance Entertainment), based on the popular novels by Lee Childs, stars Alan Ritchson as former military police officer Jack Reacher, now living as a drifter and confronting more bad guys, corruption and conspiracies. With Sonya Cassidy and Anthony Michael Hall.

Now available on Blu-ray, filmmaker Ken Burns’ sprawling, 12-hour, six-part PBS series on The American Revolution fleshes out the roots, and the revolutionaries, of the rebellion that led to the United States of America. And if you’re watching (and listening) closely, you’ll catch the celebrity character voices of Adam Arkin, Ethan Hawke, Kenneth Branaugh, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton and more. Buy it HERE

For the first time, 1998’s Practical Magic (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment) is available of super-hi-definition 4K. The romantic fantasy stars Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as sisters descended from a long line of witches, now schooled in “practical magic.” But will their modern witch-y know-how come in handy when an evil spirit takes over one of their boyfriends?

NOW HEAR THIS

Ready to rock and roll all night? KISS Destroys Anahem ’76 is a new sonic souvenir of the band’s fan-packed California show in their heyday, wowin’ the crowd with “Detroit Rock City,” “Strutter,” “Shout It Out Loud,” “Rock and Roll All Night” (of course) and many more blasts from the past.

Aug 14 2026
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Books, Movies, Pop Culture, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

What to Watch, and More! Week of Aug. 14 – 20

Blake Lively swims with sharks! Gypsy Rose Lee takes it off! A real-life Lion King! A lot of Robert Redford! Superhero sexism! And more!

Robert Redford and Paul Newman star in ‘The Sting,’
one of several flicks included in TCM’s all-day salute.

FRIDAY, Aug. 14
Hellcat
A woman (Dakota Gorman) wakes in a moving camper trailer with a horrifying wound, warned by the driver that they have one hour to get to a doctor. As the pain sets in and reality begins to fray, who should really be afraid? (Shudder).

Whitmer Thomas: Terminal Crew of Dudes
Standup comedy special from the comedian-musician-actor, best known for his voice role on the FXX comedy series Quackers (9 p.m., HBO Max).

SATURDAY, Aug. 15
Honest Renovations
Get the tool belt ready for another season of Jessia Alba and Lizzy Mathis, above, doing home makeovers and telling families about the realities of parenting (Roku Channel).

The Shallows
Blake Lively, below, stars in this 2016 Jaws-esque adventure as a young swimmer trapped alone on a rock by a great white shark. Fun fact: She was pregnant with her second child while filming! (Netflix).


SUNDAY, Aug. 16
Lanterns
New series follows intergalactic cops (Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre) drawn into a dark mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland (HBO).

Bergerac
Re-imaging of the late ‘80s TV series stars Damien Molony as a broken detective, battling his demons after the death of his wife (3 a.m., PBS).

MONDAY, Aug. 17
Donkey Hodie
New season of the animated kids’ show (with a title that grownups might recognized as a pun on Don Quixote) about animals working together to find solutions to everyday problems (PBS Kids).

Gypsy
1962 musical comedy-drama about famed stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, starring Rosalind Russell, Natalie Wood (above) and Carl Malden (9:30 p.m., TCM)

TUESDAY, Aug. 18
Take a Hike!
Unscripted reality series features Korean singer Car the Garden (yes, that’s his name!) as he balances his weight-loss meds with the grueling demands of mountain hiking (Netflix).

Celebrating Robert Redford
Enjoy a full day and night of classic and fan-favorite films starring Redford, starting with 1966’s The Chase, followed by The Great Waldo Pepper, The Candidate, The Electric Horseman, The Sting, Out of Africa and more (begins 7:30 a.m., TCM).

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 19
Lion
Coming-of-age documentary of a young lion, filmed over four years, as he grows up to become leader of his pride—a real-life lion king! (National Geographic).

Swiss Army Man
If you missed it in theaters back in 2016, catch it now on TV. It’s a wild tale of a shipwreck survivor and a flatulent corpse (yes, you read that correctly), starring Paul Dano (who never met a crazy role he couldn’t sink his teeth into), Daniel Radcliff (eons away from Harry Potter) and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Netflix).

THURSDAY, Aug. 19
Disney Worldbuilders
Meet directors and writers who reflect on the memories, moments and creative breakthroughs that shaped their movies and turned them into Disney franchises (Disney+).

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: The Wolf in Winter
Documentary about the tennis star who became the most accomplished champion player in the sport’s history (Prime Video).

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Football endures! In Strike Season (Simon & Schuster), author Michael Eck tells the true underdog tale of his high school football team, the Mt. Lebanon (Pittsburgh) Blue Devils, that continued their playing schedule after their coaches left in a 1979 teacher’s strike.

How much is AI affecting our lives? A lot, says Pope Leo IX in his new book Magnifica Humanitas (Melville House), a word of warning about the destructive power of artificial intelligence—and his advice for maintaining our humanity in the rising tide of a tech shows no signs of abating.

History buffs will dig into The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry (Thames & Hudson), an examination of a piece of linen displaying pivotal episodes in English history, including the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and the Norman conquest of Britain, that scholars believe is a thousand years old. The book is being released in paperback to time with an exhibition of the Tapestry, for the first time since it was made.

Do superhero movies stereotype female characters? Author Jeannette H. Ronson answers with a resounding yes in Superhero Sexism (McFarland), an examination of how movies and television often present females through a misogynistic, racist lens, representing them as gender non-conforming, sexually threatening, deceptive, hysterical or inherently evil.

BRING IT HOME

Director Tim Burton’s campy classic Mars Attacks! (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment) gets a 30th anniversary spiff-up with new bonus content and behind-the-scenes goodies. Plus, you’ll get to see the all-star cast of Jack Nicholson, Jack Black, Glenn Close, Annette Bening and Lisa Marie (yes, Elvis’ daughter!) fighting aliens in all their 1990s glory.



Aug 07 2026
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Books, DVDs, Movies, Music, Pop Culture, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

What to watch, and more! Week of Aug. 7 – Aug. 13

A Batman trio, exploring age-gap love, and Bear Gryllis goes Biblical.

The late Heath Ledger left an indelible impression as The Joker in “The Dark Knight,” airing this week as part of a trilogy of director Christopher Nolan’s fan-favorite flicks about the caped crusader.

FRIDAY, Aug. 7
Alley Cats
Funnyman Ricky Gervais directs and provides the main voice for this animated kid-centric tale about the lives of a group of feral felines (Netflix).

The Last House
Greta Lee leads the cast of this sci-fi thriller about a family of four, below, who are suddenly sealed inside their home with no way out (Netflix).

Age Inappropriate
New unscripted series explore the real lives of modern age-gap relationships (9 p.m., We TV).

SATURDAY, Aug. 8
She Stole My Son’s Heart
Detectives search for a missing woman (Taylor Hickson) with a failing transplanted heart (8 p.m., Lifetime).

Batman Trilogy
Watch all three of director Christoper Nolan’s critically hailed and fan-favorite movies about the caped crusader: Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Night Rises (2 p.m., TBS).

SUNDAY, Aug. 9
The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls
The TV survivalist leads the cast from the Biblical series The Chosen to take on challenges across forests, deserts, and canyons (Prime Video).


While You Were Sleeping
1995 romcom about a hospital misunderstanding that leads to hilarious romantic deception, starring Peter Gallagher and Sandra Bullock (8:33 p.m., ABC).

MONDAY, Aug. 10
Michael
Big-screen 2026 biopic of superstar-in-the-making Michael Jackson comes to the small screen, with the late singer’s own nephew, Jaafar Jackson, in the title role and Colman Domingo as the Jackson’s domineering dad (Starz).

TUESDAY, Aug. 11
Coroner to the Stars
Learn about the extraordinary journey of Dr. Thomas Noguchi (above), the former Los Angeles medical examiner and corner whose groundbreaking autopsies became a part of American culture (streaming on demand).

Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Seattle Seahawks
Join the Seahawks at their training camp in Renton, Wash., as head coach Mike Macdonald puts them through their paces in hopes of a new season of NFL glory (9 p.m., HBO Max).

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 12
Women in Blue (Las Azules)
Second season begins of the Spanish-language drama about female police recruits in the 1970s, this time pulled into a student-massacre investigation (Apple TV).

Reacher
Season five begins of the hit action-drama-conspiracy series starring Alan Richman and based on the fan-favorite books by author Lee Childs (Prime Video).

THURSDAY, Aug. 13
MLB Field of Dreams
Just like in the movie, but in real life! The Minnesota Twins take on the Philadelphia Phillies on the fabled “cornfield” diamond where Kevin Costner had a most memorable game of catch back in the ‘90s (Netflix).

A Child of My Own
In this documentary, the profound desire to become a mother and the constant pressure from her surroundings drive a young woman to fake a pregnancy (Netflix).

BRING IT HOME

If you’re ready for an acclaimed mind-bending horror flick, check out Exit 8 (Decal Neon). Critics raved about this tale, loosely based on a popular videogame, about a man caught in a looping subway, who must figure his way out. Extras include an interview with the director, Genki Kawamura.

Hungry (Decal Partners) is a British survival horror film about vacationers on a Louisiana bayou…and one rampaging hippo with a voracious appetite. Starring Madison Davenport, Samantha Couglan and Joaquin de Almeida.

Adam Scott stars in Hokum (Decal Neon), about a novelist on a retreat to scatter the ashes of his dead parents in Ireland, becoming entangled in local folktales about witches. Good stuff for a “summerween” movie night!

Ryan Gosling stars in Project Hail Mary (Alliance Home Entertainment), a dose of dire out-of-this-world sci-fi with an often-humorous twist. He plays a reluctant astronaut on a last-ditch mission to save the stars—including our sun—from extinction. Then he meets a fellow traveler on the same mission…and he’s not human.

Jackie Chan and a CGI panda cub stumble into a magical land and a mysterious primitive tribe in the kid-friendly Panda Plan: The Magical Tribe (Well Go USA).

Rock like it’s the ’80s again with L.A. Guns: Live at the Guild Theater (MVD Entertainment), a live-in-concert catch from last year of the heavy-metal Sunset Strip headbangers (who would eventually merge with Guns N’ Roses) reunited and performing in Menlo Park, Calif., performing banging tunes like “Sex Action,” “Rip and Tear” and “Lucky Motherf*cker.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

How do you write a newspaper obituary? In Are They Dead Yet: The Art of the Obit (Bloomsbury), author Sam Roberts (a decade-long veteran of New York newspaper obituary writing) dives into the almost forgotten art, and the unique experiences, of distilling life into a few paragraphs.

Art is more than the Mona Lisa or a Rembrandt painting. In Depraved: The Story of Dangerous Art (Viking), Daisy Dixon takes a deep, long look at the history of art meant not meant to beautify or sooth, but rather to disturb, rattle and provoke, with side trips into censorship, obscenity and the eternal debate over right and wrong.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

California has almost 900 miles of coastline, much of it breathtaking in its beauty. But offshore, west past the surfers and cargo ships, is the California Current, a swath of 1,900 miles of some of the most productive waters on the planet. In Tin Can Coast (Bloomsbury), author Joseph Ogilvy shows how the rich resources of the Current became fodder for the processed tuna industry, a catalyst for Cannery Row fat cats, and literary muses for author John Steinbeck and filmmaker Fritz Lang.

Jul 31 2026
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Movies, Music, Pop Culture, Sports, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

What to Watch, and More! Week of July 31 – Aug. 6

Revisit “Clueless,” get sluggin’ with “Fightland” & welcome back, “Ted Lasso”

The hit series “Ted Lasso” returns Wednesday night.

FRIDAY, July 31
Fightland
A disgraced, formerly incarcerated boxing champion seeks vengeance against the crime syndicate he thinks betrayed him. Starring Anita-Joy Uwajeh, Charles Babalola and Tahirah Sharif (Starz).

Snoopy Presents: There’s No Place Like Home, Snoopy
New animated special follows the Peanuts gang on great-outdoors adventures at a summer camp (Apple TV).

SATURDAY, Aug. 1
Killer Clown
Inspired by real stories, Sara Paxton stars as a woman haunted by the murder of her mom by a local killer (8 p.m., Lifetime).

Clueless
Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd star in this 1995 comedy, above, about a Beverly Hills high school matchmaker (Netflix).

Monster Month
Tonight begins a full month of “monster” programming, kicking off with Bigfoot and continuing through the Loch Ness Monster, dinosaurs, piranhas, sharks, jellyfish and more! (8 a.m., Story Television).

SUNDAY, Aug. 2
The Librarians: The Next Chapter
The fantasy-adventure series returns for a second season with more mystery, magic and mayhem—including crossing paths with the legendary magician Merlin (Dominic Monaghan). (9 p.m., TNT).

Naked & Afraid: Shipwrecked
A dozen of all-star players from previous Naked & Afraid seasons are dropped into rafts in the ocean in darkness, and have to find their way to shore to become stranded on a mysterious island (8 pm., Discovery Channel).

Decades in Sports
Original series co-produced by Tom Hanks explores the cultural and political milestones that transformed sports and helped shape America (9 p.m., CNN).

MONDAY, Aug. 3
Futurama
Season 14 of the hit animated comedy series begins tonight, furthering the futuristic fun with a new wave of space pirates, lab-grown meats, sexy scams… and the shocking return of Dr. Zoidberg’s lost love! (Hulu).

Let’s Marry Harry
Reality dating competition where Aussie social media personality and podcaster Harry Jowsey tries to choose between three female suitors (Netflix).

TUESDAY, Aug. 4
Wizards Beyond Waverly Place
Four-part finale event of the teen-fantasy sitcom, a spinoff of the 2007-2012 series, kicks off tonight (Disney Channel).

Glenn Ford & Stella Stevens starred in “Advance to the Rear.”

Celebrating Glenn Ford
The prolific actor from Hollywood’s Golden Age of the 1940s and ’50s is featured in an all-day slate of films, including Don’t Go Near the Water (1957), The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (1963), Advance to the Rear (1964) and The Blackboard Jungle (1955) (TCM).

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 5
Sterling Point
Coming-of-age drama series about a teenage girl who inherits her mysterious grandfather’s island in Canada. Starring Ella Rubin, Jay Duplass and Keen Ruffalo (Prime Video).

Ted Lasso
What soccer hijinks lie ahead for the hit series starring Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple? Tune in tonight as the Emmy-winning series begins its fourth season (Apple TV).

THURSDAY, Aug. 6
The Shards
Teen horror-thriller series from producer Ryan Murphy set in the early ‘80s about a prep-school guys…and a serial killer. Based on a bestselling novel by Bret Easton Ellis (FX).

Monsters of God
A gonzo deep-dive documentary series about the dangerous and crazy world of people obsessed with hunting—and illegally smuggling—all sorts of reptiles (HBO).

Ritual Season
Tune in for tonight’s episode about how rituals in the American South shape identity, preserve history and sustain communities (Independent Lens on PBS).

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The latest in the series of pop music picked bluegrass-style is Pickin’ on Post Malone (CMH Records) with toe-tapping versions of Nashville-based rapper’s tunes like “Sunflower,” “Chemical,” “Lemon Tree” and “rockstar.” Musicians include the Iron Horse band, J.D. Casper and Holler Choir.

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Movie fans, have you ever noticed how much the terrain in The Hunger Games flicks looks—and feels—a lot like Appalachia? Well, Elizabeth Baird Holly has, and in Appalachia in The Hunger Games (McFarland) she focuses on the parallels of the fictional story’s dystopia and the terrain, people and culture of the mountainous Southeast.

In Madhouse Movies (McFarland), you’ll learn from a collection of essays how Hollywood has portrayed insanity and institutions for the insane—and it’s everything from comedy to horror, and all points in-between. Grab your straitjacket and c’mon in!

Do you ever feel like you’re being manipulated at the movies? Well, you certainly are, and Games Directors Play (McFarland) shows you how skillful filmmakers draw from a deep toolkit of time-tested techniques to pull you into stories, make you “feel,” and connect your emotions to what you’re seeing.

BRING IT HOME

Mortal Kombat II, the dark-fantasy follow-up to the 2021 action flick based on the highly popular videogame franchise, follows a martial-arts actor (Karl Urban) recruited to join an inter-dimensional tournament to determine the fate of the universe. And you thought what you do is important!

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Groove again to the jammin’ sounds of WAR with the new 50th anniversary reissue of the band’s Greatest Hits (Rhino), showcasing the California-based ensemble’s signature blend of funk, soul, rock, jazz, and Latin sounds on hits like “Low Rider,” “Why Can’t We Be Friends,” “The World is a Ghetto” and “Summer.”

Jul 24 2026
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DVDs, Movies, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

What to watch, and more! Week of Friday, July 24 – Thursday, July 30

Happy Birthday, Bugs! Kevin Hart’s bachelor weekend, Elvis on stage & a girl in a coffin!

FRIDAY, July 24
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert
The acclaimed big-screen documentary from director Baz Lehrman—with newly unearthed, freshly enhanced and electrifying performance footage, plus Elvis interviews—comes to streaming today (Paramount+).

72 Hours
Kevin Hart stars as 40-year-old executive who hopes to save his flailing career by joining a group of twenty-somethings (below) on a wild three-day bachelor party after he’s accidentally added to their group text (Netflix).

SATURDAY, July 25
Girl in the Coffin
After her mother’s death, a young woman (Tahirah Sharif) fights for survival after waking up…yep, in a coffin (8 p.m., Lifetime).

Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender
Animated spinoff of the franchise, set in an Asian-inspired fantasy world, features the voices of Dave Bautista, Stephen Yuen and Jessica Matten (Paramount+).

SUNDAY, July 26
Shark Week
Stay out of the water! Tonight kicks off a whole week of bite-tastic programming about the oceans’ most fearsome predators, hosted by actor Ken Jeong (check listings, Discovery).

The Walking Dead: Dead City
Season three begins tonight of the hit post-apocalyptic series starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohen (AMC and AMC+).

Bugs Bunny Birthday Bash
What’s up, Doc? A 24-hour marathon of classic Bugs Bunny, that’s what! And it’s timed to the wascally wabbit’s 86th birthday tomorrow (6 a.m., MeTV Toons).

MONDAY, July 27
Modern Marvels
New three-part limited series explores World War II as the ultimate global arms race, where victory hinges on who can invent, build, and scale the most incredible engineering marvels (10 p.m., History Channel).

Furious
An FBI agent (Emmy Rossum, below) goes on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating female serial killer. But as their lives start to intertwine, the line between right and wrong begins to blur (Hulu).

TUESDAY, July 28
Kitchen Undercover
High-stakes, sneak-attack restaurant rescue series follows chef Antonia Lofaso and sous-chef Nestor Milian as they go undercover to help failing restaurants that are one more bad review away from total collapse (9 p.m., Food Network).

WEDNESDAY, July 29
The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder
Final season of the hit animated streaming series features guest voices including Maria Carey, Ali Wong and Dee Nasty (Disney+).


The Ark
Extraterrestrial sci-fi series enters season three as the team returns to space to find other lost Earth survivors (10 p.m., SyFy).

Life and Death on Pangea
Documentary unwinds the clock back to a time long ago when a catastrophic extinction event wiped out 80% of the life on planet Earth (check local listings, PBS).

THURSDAY, July 30
Home in You
Swedish dramady about a family caught between two worlds as gentrification pushes them out of their Stockholm subdivision (Viaplay).

Presidential 1776 Award
Watch the final round of the first competition for students testing their knowledge of America’s founding principles (8 p.m., CBS).

BRING IT HOME

Two sisters (Kara Young and Mallori Johnson) embark on an epic quest for revenge against their father for disfiguring them as children. Vivica Fox plays their mom, whom they refer to as “God.” Now’s your chance to dig into the critically praised Is God Is (Amazon MGM Studios).


Bob Odenkirk slips back into ultraviolent Nobody mode to star in Normal (Magnolia Home Entertainment) as an unassuming substitute sheriff (in the small town of Normal) who responds to a bank robbery and uncovers something even more explosive. With Henry Winkler and Lena Headey.

It’s Elvis as you’ve never experienced Elvis before, in Epic (Neon/Universal), director Baz Luhrmann’s acclaimed documentary about Presley, put together with newfound in-concert footage, enhanced filmed interviews and other docu-goodies. And, of course, LOTS of Elvis songs! It makes you feel like you’re there, on stage, backstage and at home, with the King.

Based on a true story, I Swear (Sony Pictures Classics) is the funny and moving tale of a young British man with Tourette’s. Robert Aramayo gives a powerful performance as John Davidson, who grew up to be a steadfast advocate for the condition he’d dealt with all his life. BUY HERE

Version 1.0.0

The critically hailed and Oscar-nominated Sirāt is the tale of a Spanish father (Sergi López) looking for his missing daughter, with the aid of a group of partiers headed to a rave in the desert. (Neon Home Entertainment).

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Little readers will enjoy the fun scares scares of Scritch! Scratch! (Random House Books for Young Readers), an illustrated tale about kids hiding from a crafty witch—or maybe it’s just their over-active imagination!

Jul 17 2026
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Books, DVDs, Movies, Music, Photography, Pop Culture, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

What to Watch, and More! Friday, July 17 – Thursday, July 24

Keanu and Sandra’s bus bomb, excavating the mysteries of Pompeii & Bill Maher’s big night

Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock steer a bus with a ticking bomb in ‘Speed.’

FRIDAY, July 17
They Fight
Boxing drama about a reformed ex-con (Andre Holland) determined to reintegrate into society so he can be with the mother of his toddler son (Hulu).

Exit 8
Based on the video game, horror flick follows a man (Kazunari Ninomiya) trapped in an endless subway passageway as he sets out to find Exit 8 (Shudder).

SATURDAY, July 18
Crowning at the Prom
A single mom discovers her teenage daughter has been hiding a life-changing secret. Starring Danielle Panabaker and Anwar O’Driscoll (8 p.m., Lifetime).

Speed
Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock and Dennis Hopper star in this Oscar-winning 1994 thriller about a city bus rigged with a bomb that will detonate if its speed drops below 50 miles per hour. Hang on! (8:33 p.m., ABC).

SUNDAY, July 19
King of the Hill
In the season 15 opener of the animated sitcom, Hank and Peggy settle into retirement life while attempting to keep their neighbors from going off the rails (Hulu).  

MONDAY, July 20
Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross
Season two finds the award-winning actress, above, heading to Australia, Thailand and Switzerland to relish the experience of “enjoying my own company (Roku Channel).

TUESDAY, July 21
Bill Maher: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
Louis C.K., Whitney Cummins, Woody Harrelson and more gather to celebrate comedy icon Bill Maher as he accepts the Kennedy Center’s highest honor for humor (Netflix).

WEDNESDAY, July 22
Who Wants to be a Millionaire
New season begins tonight with Jimmy Kimmel returning as host, and pairs of celebrity contestants playing together in the hopes of winning $1 million for the charity of their choice (8 p.m., ABC).

THURSDAY, July 23
Restaurant Impossible: Last Call
Chef Aarón Sánchez and Canadian restaurateur Jen Agg lead the charge to rescue struggling restaurants across North America (8 p.m., Food Network).

Pompeii: Out of Time
Actor Tom Hiddleston takes us to Rome in this three-part series, part storytelling and part investigation of the city-destroying eruption of Mt. Vesuvius 2,000 years ago (9 p.m. Disney+ and Hulu).

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe
In this Big Bang Theory spinoff series, comic bookstore owner Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman) is tasked with restoring reality after he breaks a device built by Sheldon and Leonard, accidentally bringing about a multiverse Armageddon (9 p.m., HBO Max).

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Football hasn’t always been a guys-only game. In Gridiron Invasion: The Hidden History of Women’s Football (University of Tennessee Press), author Katie Taylor looks at the long, often hard road of females who longed to get between the goalposts, long before the official leagues were devised in the 1960s.  

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Keith Urban sets sail with Flow State (MCA), his new album of smooooth-groove yacht rock tunes like “Steal Away,” “Baby Come Back,” “Summer Breeze” and “On and On,” with assists from Michael McDonald, John Mayer and Little Big Town.

Rock ‘n’ roll never dies, as the saying goes. And the Rolling Stones keep on rolling! The band’s new album, Foreign Tongues (Capitol Records) has 14 new songs and was recorded in London by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ron Wood, with assists from Steve Winwood, Paul McCartney, The Cure’s Robert Smith and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

And speaking of Paul McCartney, he’s back with a brand-new album, his first in more than five years. The Boys of Dungeon Lane is a collection of revealing glimpses into the former Beatle’s memories and a revisit to the formative years that shaped not only his life, but the very foundations of modern popular culture.

BRING IT HOME

A rollicking cinematic fantasy from the late 1950s has been spiffed up for a new release. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (AV Entertainment) stars Kerwin Matthews and Katherine Grant, with groundbreaking stop-motion special “monster” effects by the legendary Ray Harryhausen. Buy it HERE.


Jul 10 2026
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Books, DVDs, Movies, Pop Culture, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

What to Watch, and More! Week of July 10 – July 16

Murray and Dreyfuss mix it up, the Home Run Derby & searching for the nation’s dumbest gameshow players

Bill Murray and Richard Drefuss didn’t get along in “What About Bob.”

FRIDAY, July 10
The Presidents: JFK
First of a two-parter about the life, presidency, and legacy of John F. Kennedy (9 p.m., PBS).

Reminders of Him
Colleen Hoover‘s bestselling novel becomes a transformative film about motherhood, forgiveness and the power of love. Starring Maika Monroe, Tyriq Withers, Lauren Graham, Bradley Whitford and Lainey Wilson (Peacock).

SATURDAY, July 11
He Couldn’t Let Go
Christina Milian stars as a woman whose ability to read body language helps her escape a terrifying ordeal (8 p.m., Lifetime).

Hearts of Heroes
Brooke Shields—joined by disaster-recovery expert Sheldon Yellen—hosts season eight of this celebration of first responders and everyday do-gooders, above (check listings, ABC).

SUNDAY, July 12
The Westies
Crime drama about New York City’s infamously violent Irish gang of the same name stars J.K. Simmons and Titus Welliver (9 p.m., MGM+).

What About Bob?
Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss (who famously didn’t get along!) teamed for this 1991 comedy about a neurotic psych patient who makes his buttoned-up doctor’s life spin out of control (8:33 p.m., ABC).

MONDAY, July 13
Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro
A dozen up-and-coming dancers move into one house and compete in a grueling audition process, all vying for a coveted spot as a pro dancer on Season 35 of Dancing with the Stars (8 p.m., ABC).

MLB Home Run Derby
Who’s the top slugger in all baseball? This annual friendly slugfest pits hitters against hitters, to see who can get the most balls “over the fence” (Netflix).

Homestead Rescue: Intervention
New series finds the Raneys helping off-gridders hold onto their failing homesteads in remote locations (8 p.m., Discovery).

TUESDAY, July 14
Once Upon a Time in Space
Documentary series tells the stories behind one of our most extraordinary endeavors: the exploration of space (9 p.m., PBS).

WEDNESDAY, July 15
Nation’s Dumbest
New competition channels celebrities’ school spirit as they face a mix of brain-teasing tasks, fast-paced physical challenges and long-buried classroom knowledge (9 p.m., Fox).

Lucky
New drama series about a heist gone sideways stars Anya Taylor-Joy (below) Annette Bening, Timothy Olyphant and Clifton Collins Jr. Based on a bestselling novel (Apple TV).

Ride or Die
New action comedy starring and executive produced by Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham, below, about two women—one with a big secret—running for their lives across Europe (Prime Video).

THURSDAY, July 16
The Five Star Weekend
A woman schedules a weekend with her gal pals to help her get over a devastating loss. Starring Jennifer Garner, D’Arcy Carden, Gemma Chan, Regina Hall, Chloë Sevigny, and Timothy Olyphant (Peacock).

The Hawk
Will Ferrell, Molly Shannon, Luke Wilson, Chris Parnell and Fortune Feimster star in this new 10-episode comedy series, below, about a golfer teeing off for a comeback (Netflix).

BRING IT HOME

They’re gonna need a bigger boat…or a better airplane! In Deep Water (Magenta Light Studios), passengers and crew of on an international flight crash into the Pacific Ocean, where they soon discover they’re not alone. The shark-fest stars Ben Kingsley and Aaron Eckhart.

Enjoy the whole action-packed debut season of NCIS: Tony & Ziva (Paramount Home Video), as the two special agents (Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo) are forced to go on the run from a dangerous conspiracy with their young daughter. Special features a gag reel and a mini-doc about filming on location.

In director Steven Soderbergh’s critically acclaimed The Christophers (Paramount Home Entertainment), the adult children of a once-celebrated artist enlist a forger to access his unfinished work in a deceptive bid to secure an inheritance. Starring Ian McKellan and Michaela Coel.

The Year Before the War (IndiePix Films) is a fantasia set in 1913, just before the breakout of World War I. It follows a doorman in Lativa (Petr Buchta) on a surreal odyssey that connects him to communists, anarchists, proto-fascists and others involved in the conflict that would soon engulf the globe.

They Will Kill You (Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment), a blend of horror, action and dark comedy, stars Zazie Beetz as a young woman who must avoid a twisted death-trap of a lair. With Tom Felton, Heather Graham, and Patricia Arquette.

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Back in the ‘70s, Alicia Bridges sang how she “loved the nightlife.” Well gurl, you need to read Up All Night (Grove Atlantic), Imogen Willetts’ sweeping chronicle of how humans have behaved—and misbehaved—when the sun goes down…and before it comes up again. Par-tay!

What can we learn from Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the witches in The Wizard of Oz and its Wicked spinoffs? A lot, according to Steven Keslowitz in Traveling the Yellow Brick Road (McFarland). It’s a trip down memory lane, and into the fantasy, lore and lure of one of everyone’s favorite tall tales.

Jul 03 2026
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Books, DVDs, Movies, Music, Pop Culture

The Entertainment Forecast

What to watch, and more! Week of July 3 – July 9

A teen’s “Last Resort,” America turns 250 & a sizzling Burning Man doc!

FRIDAY, July 3
Summer’s Last Resort
Jerry O’Connell and Sophia Bush star in this summer-shenanigans film (above) about a teen (Violet McGraw) trying to break up romance between her mom and her high school principal (Tubi).

Touch Me
Two codependent best friends become addicted to the heroin-like touch of an alien narcissist who may or may not be trying to take over the world. Starring Olivia Taylor Dudley, Jordan Gavaris and Lou Taylor Pucci (Shudder).

SATURDAY, July 4
America Made in Virginia: 250 Years Together
Live performance, music, historic interpretation and large-scale visual spectacle celebrates the ideas, people, and defining moments that gave rise to the United States (8 p.m., PBS).

Ralph Lauren’s American Icons
Thirty-minute documentary explores the legendary designer’s curation of a collection of 13 United States Postal Service stamps honoring iconic American imagery (7:30 p.m., History Channel).

SUNDAY, July 5
Sharkfest
The 14th year of fin-tastic programming (above) kicks off tonight with Hammerhead Sharks Up Close with Bertie Gregory, followed by more programming through the month across Disney+, Hulu and NatGeo platforms (Disney+ and Hulu).

Sparks of Tomorrow
Animated tale is based inside an alternate reality at the dawn of the 20th century in Tokyo, which has unfolded without electricity and instead relies on steam (Netflix).

MONDAY, July 6
Inspector Ellis
Sharon D Clark returns for season two of the British crime drama and murder mystery series (Acorn TV).

TUESDAY, July 7
Breaking the Deadlock: How to Fix an Election
Panelists explore hypothetical scenarios around election issues and government integrity, against the backdrop of America’s 250th anniversary (9 p.m., PBS).

WEDNESDAY, July 8
Guy’s Grocery Games: Global Games
Guy Fieri hosts eight all-star masters of world cuisines competing in the new five-part tournament for a chance to win the trophy and a $50,000 grand prize (8 p.m., Food Network).

Wardriver
A hacker (Dane DeHaan) lured into a million-dollar cyberheist discovers it’s actually a deadly game of digital-code cat and mouse, above (Paramount+).

THURSDAY, July 9
Five Star Weekend
Jennifer Garner stars in this new drama series about old friends and life that turns out differently that you planned. With D’Arcy Carden, Gemma Chan, Regina Hall, Chloë Sevigny, Harlow Jane and Timothy Olyphant (Peacock).

The Man Will Burn
Documentary about the Burning Man festival and its growth from anarchic counterculture roots in San Francisco to a globally recognized spectacle (HBO Max).

"A young girl draws back on a slingshot and takes aim. "
Alice Halsey as Laura Ingalls in episode one of ‘Little House on the Prairie.‘

Little House on the Prairie
New take (above) on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s iconic semi-autobiographical Little House books, previously made into an iconic NBC TV series of the 1970s and ‘80s (Netflix)

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How well do you know your goddesses? Goddess of the World (McFarland) examines the deities once regarded as humanity’s supreme beings, cultures in which they still hold the throne, and the traces of the feminine cloaked inside major modern religions.

Meet Raymond Hoser, known as Australia’s “snakeman,” a serpent wrangler who later discovered and named thousands of new species, more snakes than any scientist. Snake Men (W.W.Norton) is his story, a fang-tastic tale of a triumph of taxinomy…and accusations that Hoser was a rebellious interloper short-circuiting the tightly coiled scientific process.

In The Future of Bananas (Melville House), professor James Dale explains how the world’s most-eaten fruit is imperiled by disease and climate change, and what’s being done to ensure it sticks around.

Robyn Hitchcock, a self-described rock ‘n’ roll “surrealist” who considers his songs “paintings you can listen to,” recounts the wild ride of his life and career in Stranded in the Future (Akashic), his second memoir. It’s a rollicking trip down memory lane, hinged on the 1970s and his influential alt-rock band the Soft Boys.

If you’ve forgotten about all the scary movies of the previous decade, well, here’s some handy-dandy help. John Kenneth Muir’s Horror Films of the 2010s (McFarland), is loaded with info and insight about, well, just about every horror film of the era, from indie flicks to blockbusters and franchise faves. And it’s also a spotlight on how the anxieties of the times shaped horror movies, and how horror movies responded and reflected their times.

For centuries, clowns have been everywhere—at the circus, on TV, in freak shows, and sometimes in our nightmares. In Beyond Bozo (McFarland), you’ll all about these pop-cultural pranksters and how they’ve excited our imagination across the ages.

We remember all those birds menacing Tippi Hedren, Cary Grant running from a crop duster, and James Stewart peering from his wheelchair out his Rear Window. But how well do we remember what they were wearing? Hitchcock fans and film buffs will love Fashioning Hitchcock (Bloomsbury Academic), in which author Caroline Young examines the clothes carefully chosen for the characters in the director’s classic movies, exploring the larger role of costume design in filmmaking.

BRING IT HOME

A young couple’s wedding plans take a hilariously unexpected turn in The Drama (A24), starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, who’ll reunite later this month in the big-screen take on Homer’s The Odyssey! Alana Haim plays a maid of honor.

Pamela Baywatch Anderson shines in The Last Showgirl (Lionsgate Home Entertainment) as a past-her-prime Las Vegas dancer facing the end of her career. Can she make a comeback…or accept her “new” life? With Jamie Lee Curtis. Buy it HERE.

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