HONS
This combination of photos shows promotional art for "The Larkins" a series premiering on Acorn TV on Dec. 13, "Swan Song," a film streaming Dec. 15 on Apple TV+ and "Grand View" a series previewing its first two episodes on Dec. 14. (AcornTV/Apple TV+/NBC via AP)
Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week.
MOVIES
— What’s better than a Mahershala Ali performance? How about two? In Benjamin Cleary’s “Swan Song,” Ali plays a terminally ill family man who turns to an experimental cloning lab (Glenn Close plays its lead doctor) in order to spare his pregnant wife (Naomie Harris) and young son (Dax Rey) the pain of losing him. The duplication process is total, right down to his most subconscious memories. It’s a somber and emotional sci-fi drama, full of existential quandary as Ali’s dying man struggles with his decision and the difficulty of letting go. It debuts Wednesday on Apple TV+ and in theaters.
— In “The Hand of God,” Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino, who directed the luminous Oscar-winning Roman odyssey “The Great Beauty” turns southward to his hometown of Naples for an autobiographical film based on his 1980s childhood. In my review, I wrote that “Sorrentino, a melancholy but ecstatic filmmaker with an eager, energetic camera, is in much the same mood here, finding divine splendor in the everyday and the profane.” “The Hand of God,” which begins streaming Wednesday on Netflix, was the Golden Lion winner at the Venice Film Festival, and a pick for The Associated Press’ best films of 2021.
— In an unusual twist, the recent Walt Disney Co. release “Ron’s Gone Wrong” will land on both Disney+ and HBO Max on Wednesday after its theatrical run. The unusual arrangement is because of a soon-to-be-phased-out output deal between 20th Century Fox (which Disney acquired) and Warner Bros. But for now you have the choice of either platform for streaming this comic animated adventure about technology addiction and human companionship. While all the other kids have sleeker, high-functioning computerized sidekicks, Barney Pudowski (Jack Dylan Grazer) has a damaged, malfunctioning bot that can’t connect to the Internet (voiced by Zach Galifianakis). In his review, the AP’s Mark Kennedy said the movie “thinks it’s being subversive when it’s really being very corporate.”
— AP Film Writer Jake Coyle
MUSIC
— Nearly two years ago, rapper Roddy Ricch released his debut album “Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial,” which landed atop the Billboard 200 chart and included his Grammy-nominated hit “The Box.” On Friday, Ricch is back with his sophomore record, “Live Life Fast.” The Compton-based melodic rapper earned a Grammy for collaborating with Nipsey Hussle and Hit-Boy on the song “Racks in the Middle” and performed on the Grammy stage with DaBaby on their hit “Rockstar.” His new album reflects on the young artist dealing with the sudden fame and money and includes the chart-rising track “late at night.”
— A host of musical artists will join an online concert on Wednesday to benefit environmental causes. The Lumineers, Jack Johnson, Black Pumas, Rhiannon Giddens and Ben Harper will appear on the “Peace Through Music” event run by Playing for Change and the United Nations Population Fund, on Playing for Change’s YouTube channel. Designed to promote environmental sustainability, the concert will raise money for organizations like Conservation International, American Rivers and the World Wildlife Fund. It is modeled after a similar 2020 concert that raised money for social justice causes.
— AP Entertainment Writer Kristin M. Hall
TELEVISION
— Acorn TV’s “The Larkins” is a feel-good period family drama set in Kent, England, and based on the 1958 H.E. Bates’ novel “The Darling Buds of May” (credit Shakespeare for the title). The Larkins include Pop (Bradley Walsh), Ma (Joanna Scanlan) and their six children — among them restless Mariette (Sabrina Bartlett, who played Siena in “Bridgerton”). The ’50s rural setting is idyllic and the family generous and good-hearted, but Pop’s sketchy business dealings provoke village gossip. The series opens Monday with two episodes, with others out weekly on the streaming service.
— Two makers of the dearly departed “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” Phil Augusta Jackson and Dan Goor, are jumping back into the sitcom pool with NBC’s “Grand Crew.” It’s set in a Los Angeles wine bar where young professional pals gather to hash out the highs and lows of their lives (“Cheers” minus the beer?). Among them: Nicole Byer (host of “Nailed It!”) as an ambitious real-estate agent and Anthony (Aaron Jennings, “Insecure”) who’s married to his career. “Grand Crew” gets a two-episode preview at 8 p.m. EST Tuesday settling into its 8:30 p.m. EST time slot Jan. 4.
— If the success of “Yellowstone” for Paramount+ makes it a hard act to follow, how about a prequel to the Dutton family saga? “Yellowstone” co-creator Taylor Sheridan is obliging with “1883,” described as a retelling of Western expansion though the impoverished family’s journey toward a new chapter in pre-statehood Montana. Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Billy Bob Thornton star in the drama debuting Sunday. “Yellowstone,” the modern Dutton story with Kevin Costner as the patriarch of a ranching empire, is in its fourth season on the streaming service.
— AP Television Writer Lynn Elber
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New this week to TV, streaming and more: Roddy Ricch, ‘Swan Song’ and ‘The Larkins’
AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File
Britney was freed. Bennifer came back. So did Broadway, yay! And actually, the Beatles! As for Bond — James Bond — he said goodbye, at least the Daniel Craig version.
Harry and Meghan spoke to Oprah, and boy, we listened. We listened, too, to Taylor Swift, who sang about a failed affair and a still-missing scarf (ex-lovers: hang onto knitwear at your peril!)
It was a year for reunions: The cast of “Friends,” for example, and three of the “Sex and the City” foursome, in a reboot. And revivals: “West Side Story” made an Oscar-buzzy splash 60 years after the original. Even Tony Soprano came back, sort of, for a minute.
Live entertainment brought a wary joy — wary because at any time, it could stop. And nice guys won out — at least in TV comedy, where “Ted Lasso,” Jason Sudeikis’ show about an endearingly earnest American coach transplanted to cutthroat British football, swept the Emmys. The whole “Ted Lasso” cast was great, but if we’re seeking to capture the mood of the year, let’s maybe look to the goldfish.
Who?
You know, the goldfish. The happiest animal, Lasso likes to tell his players, because it only has a 10-second memory (though science may beg to differ). That’s good when you’re holding a grudge in sports, but also when you’re trying to get through a rollercoaster year like 2021, when we thought we were up and then we were down again. And again. And again.
So here’s to you, happy goldfish. And here’s our annual, highly subjective trip down pop culture memory lane:
AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File
Britney was freed. Bennifer came back. So did Broadway, yay! And actually, the Beatles! As for Bond — James Bond — he said goodbye, at least the Daniel Craig version.
Harry and Meghan spoke to Oprah, and boy, we listened. We listened, too, to Taylor Swift, who sang about a failed affair and a still-missing scarf (ex-lovers: hang onto knitwear at your peril!)
It was a year for reunions: The cast of “Friends,” for example, and three of the “Sex and the City” foursome, in a reboot. And revivals: “West Side Story” made an Oscar-buzzy splash 60 years after the original. Even Tony Soprano came back, sort of, for a minute.
Live entertainment brought a wary joy — wary because at any time, it could stop. And nice guys won out — at least in TV comedy, where “Ted Lasso,” Jason Sudeikis’ show about an endearingly earnest American coach transplanted to cutthroat British football, swept the Emmys. The whole “Ted Lasso” cast was great, but if we’re seeking to capture the mood of the year, let’s maybe look to the goldfish.
Who?
You know, the goldfish. The happiest animal, Lasso likes to tell his players, because it only has a 10-second memory (though science may beg to differ). That’s good when you’re holding a grudge in sports, but also when you’re trying to get through a rollercoaster year like 2021, when we thought we were up and then we were down again. And again. And again.
So here’s to you, happy goldfish. And here’s our annual, highly subjective trip down pop culture memory lane:
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New this week to TV, streaming and more: Roddy Ricch, ‘Swan Song’ and ‘The Larkins’
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Pool, File
On Inauguration Day, a star is born, and we’re not talking about an elected official.
AMANDA GORMAN, 22, captivates a nation, reciting “The Hill We Climb” in her distinctive yellow coat and red hairband. Within hours, the eloquent national youth poet laureate has gained more than a million followers on Instagram (now close to 4 million); soon, she has million-print book orders, a modeling contract and a hosting gig at the Met Gala.
Runner-up inauguration star: BERNIE SANDERS’ MITTENS, inspiration for many a bobblehead.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Pool, File
On Inauguration Day, a star is born, and we’re not talking about an elected official.
AMANDA GORMAN, 22, captivates a nation, reciting “The Hill We Climb” in her distinctive yellow coat and red hairband. Within hours, the eloquent national youth poet laureate has gained more than a million followers on Instagram (now close to 4 million); soon, she has million-print book orders, a modeling contract and a hosting gig at the Met Gala.
Runner-up inauguration star: BERNIE SANDERS’ MITTENS, inspiration for many a bobblehead.
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New this week to TV, streaming and more: Roddy Ricch, ‘Swan Song’ and ‘The Larkins’
AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey
“Could this whole night have been an email?” co-host TINA FEY asks of the Golden Globes, an awkwardly virtual ceremony that still has its moving moments, including a heartbreaking speech by TAYLOR SIMONE LEDWARD, widow of posthumous winner CHADWICK BOSEMAN: “I don’t have his words.”
These Globes will be remembered, though, for revelations of the shocking lack of diversity in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
A judge upholds — for now — the conservatorship governing BRITNEY SPEARS, as a new documentary, “Framing Britney Spears," shines light on the troubling case.
AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey
“Could this whole night have been an email?” co-host TINA FEY asks of the Golden Globes, an awkwardly virtual ceremony that still has its moving moments, including a heartbreaking speech by TAYLOR SIMONE LEDWARD, widow of posthumous winner CHADWICK BOSEMAN: “I don’t have his words.”
These Globes will be remembered, though, for revelations of the shocking lack of diversity in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
A judge upholds — for now — the conservatorship governing BRITNEY SPEARS, as a new documentary, “Framing Britney Spears," shines light on the troubling case.
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New this week to TV, streaming and more: Roddy Ricch, ‘Swan Song’ and ‘The Larkins’
Joe Pugliese/Harpo Productions via AP, File
It’s a big night for women at the Grammys, where SWIFT becomes the first female performer to win album of the year three times, and BEYONCÉ gets her 28th win to become the most decorated woman in Grammy history.
But the biggest news this month is HARRY and MEGHAN's bombshell interview, in which Meghan speaks of a fairytale life that turned dark and made her suicidal, and alleges experiencing racism in the royal family.
Joe Pugliese/Harpo Productions via AP, File
It’s a big night for women at the Grammys, where SWIFT becomes the first female performer to win album of the year three times, and BEYONCÉ gets her 28th win to become the most decorated woman in Grammy history.
But the biggest news this month is HARRY and MEGHAN's bombshell interview, in which Meghan speaks of a fairytale life that turned dark and made her suicidal, and alleges experiencing racism in the royal family.
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New this week to TV, streaming and more: Roddy Ricch, ‘Swan Song’ and ‘The Larkins’
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, Pool
It was about time. CHLOÉ ZHAO takes the best director Oscar for her lyrical “Nomadland,” only the second woman in history (and the first woman of color). The in-person but stripped down Oscars bring back red-carpet glamour — that abrupt ending was super weird, though.
April is also Titanic anniversary month — worth noting because of BOWEN YANG’S hilarious impersonation, on “Saturday Night Live,” of the iceberg itself, who's moved past that sinking thing but is eager to promote his album.
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, Pool
It was about time. CHLOÉ ZHAO takes the best director Oscar for her lyrical “Nomadland,” only the second woman in history (and the first woman of color). The in-person but stripped down Oscars bring back red-carpet glamour — that abrupt ending was super weird, though.
April is also Titanic anniversary month — worth noting because of BOWEN YANG’S hilarious impersonation, on “Saturday Night Live,” of the iceberg itself, who's moved past that sinking thing but is eager to promote his album.
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New this week to TV, streaming and more: Roddy Ricch, ‘Swan Song’ and ‘The Larkins’
Terence Patrick/HBO Max via AP
Let’s devote this month to friends – meaning “Friends,” aka Joey and Phoebe and Chandler and Monica and Rachel and Ross, who hold their long-awaited reunio.n Among the revelations: A mutual, previously unknown crush between JENNIFER ANISTON and DAVID SCHWIMMER, and LADY GAGA'S fondness for Phoebe’s “Smelly Cat.” Also: the monkeys who played Marcel weren’t nice, and this is the last reunion (we’ll see about that).
Terence Patrick/HBO Max via AP
Let’s devote this month to friends – meaning “Friends,” aka Joey and Phoebe and Chandler and Monica and Rachel and Ross, who hold their long-awaited reunio.n Among the revelations: A mutual, previously unknown crush between JENNIFER ANISTON and DAVID SCHWIMMER, and LADY GAGA'S fondness for Phoebe’s “Smelly Cat.” Also: the monkeys who played Marcel weren’t nice, and this is the last reunion (we’ll see about that).
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New this week to TV, streaming and more: Roddy Ricch, ‘Swan Song’ and ‘The Larkins’
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File
One of Hollywood’s more compelling relationships i s apparently finished. KIM KARDASHIAN WEST details in “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” why she filed for divorce from KANYE WEST in February: “I don’t want a husband that lives in a completely different state,” she says, and “I want someone who wants to work out with me.”
SPEARS speaks, telling a judge that she wants her life back. “I’ve lied and told the whole world I’m OK,” she says. She was not.
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File
One of Hollywood’s more compelling relationships i s apparently finished. KIM KARDASHIAN WEST details in “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” why she filed for divorce from KANYE WEST in February: “I don’t want a husband that lives in a completely different state,” she says, and “I want someone who wants to work out with me.”
SPEARS speaks, telling a judge that she wants her life back. “I’ve lied and told the whole world I’m OK,” she says. She was not.
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New this week to TV, streaming and more: Roddy Ricch, ‘Swan Song’ and ‘The Larkins’
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File
Nice guys don’t always finish last — especially not in 2021, when audiences seem to crave something upbeat and folksy and guileless. The second season of “Ted Lasso" debuts this month, bringing a new set of challenges to the amiable coach and his underdog club, AFC Richmond. In two months, the show will sweep the comedy Emmys — we’re just telling you now, because our September entry will be packed! “Heck of a year,” Sudeikis will say, Lasso-like.
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File
Nice guys don’t always finish last — especially not in 2021, when audiences seem to crave something upbeat and folksy and guileless. The second season of “Ted Lasso" debuts this month, bringing a new set of challenges to the amiable coach and his underdog club, AFC Richmond. In two months, the show will sweep the comedy Emmys — we’re just telling you now, because our September entry will be packed! “Heck of a year,” Sudeikis will say, Lasso-like.
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New this week to TV, streaming and more: Roddy Ricch, ‘Swan Song’ and ‘The Larkins’
Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP
Who saw this coming? It’s BENNIFER! Almost 20 years after their very public romance, JENNIFER LOPEZ and BEN AFFLECK have found each other again, and they’re packing on the PDA, with paparazzi pics of kissing at dinner, on a yacht, on red carpets ... The Internet rejoices.
On a sad note, it’s the end of a rock ’n' roll era as ROLLING STONES drummer CHARLIE WATTS — the beat AND heartbeat of the band — dies at age 80, just before the Stones go back on tour.
Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP
Who saw this coming? It’s BENNIFER! Almost 20 years after their very public romance, JENNIFER LOPEZ and BEN AFFLECK have found each other again, and they’re packing on the PDA, with paparazzi pics of kissing at dinner, on a yacht, on red carpets ... The Internet rejoices.
On a sad note, it’s the end of a rock ’n' roll era as ROLLING STONES drummer CHARLIE WATTS — the beat AND heartbeat of the band — dies at age 80, just before the Stones go back on tour.
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New this week to TV, streaming and more: Roddy Ricch, ‘Swan Song’ and ‘The Larkins’
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
“There’s no place like home!” That’s the original Glinda, KRISTIN CHENOWETH, welcoming Broadway audiences back to “Wicked.” Enthusiastic post-pandemic theatergoers — masked and vaccinated — also flock to hits like “Waitress,” “Hadestown,” “The Lion King” and “Hamilton.”
The Met Gala is back, with mandatory PCR tests and a decidedly young vibe led by hosts TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET (in sweats and high-tops), BILLIE EILISH, GORMAN, and tennis star NAOMI OSAKA.
At the Emmys, it’s Lasso time, and also time to hail comedy heroine JEAN SMART, who takes a trophy and basks in her “JEANaissance.”
New on TV: the South Korean survival drama “Squid Game," making an audacious entrance. In the courtroom, music star R. KELLY is convicted of sex trafficking — a milestone in the #MeToo movement, especially for Black victims of sexual abuse.
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
“There’s no place like home!” That’s the original Glinda, KRISTIN CHENOWETH, welcoming Broadway audiences back to “Wicked.” Enthusiastic post-pandemic theatergoers — masked and vaccinated — also flock to hits like “Waitress,” “Hadestown,” “The Lion King” and “Hamilton.”
The Met Gala is back, with mandatory PCR tests and a decidedly young vibe led by hosts TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET (in sweats and high-tops), BILLIE EILISH, GORMAN, and tennis star NAOMI OSAKA.
At the Emmys, it’s Lasso time, and also time to hail comedy heroine JEAN SMART, who takes a trophy and basks in her “JEANaissance.”
New on TV: the South Korean survival drama “Squid Game," making an audacious entrance. In the courtroom, music star R. KELLY is convicted of sex trafficking — a milestone in the #MeToo movement, especially for Black victims of sexual abuse.
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New this week to TV, streaming and more: Roddy Ricch, ‘Swan Song’ and ‘The Larkins’
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File
In an almost too-good-to-be-true, life-meets-art moment, CAPTAIN KIRK himself boldly blasts off into space. An overwhelmed WILLIAM SHATNER, at 90 the oldest space traveler, describes the atmosphere keeping mankind alive as “thinner than your skin.”
DANIEL CRAIG makes his final Bond outing in “No Time to Die.”
And while TONY SOPRANO may be dead or not, depending on how you viewed that diner scene in the finale, he’s back as a teenager in the prequel “Many Saints of Newark,” played by none other than MICHAEL GANDOLFINI, James's son. The film, though, doesn't thrive at the box office — unlike Sony Pictures’ Marvel sequel “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” which enjoys a huge opening.
Real-life tragedy strikes a movie set as a gunshot fired by actor ALEC BALDWIN accidentally kills cinematographer HALYNA HUTCHINS, horrifying an industry and spurring calls for all guns to be banned on sets.
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File
In an almost too-good-to-be-true, life-meets-art moment, CAPTAIN KIRK himself boldly blasts off into space. An overwhelmed WILLIAM SHATNER, at 90 the oldest space traveler, describes the atmosphere keeping mankind alive as “thinner than your skin.”
DANIEL CRAIG makes his final Bond outing in “No Time to Die.”
And while TONY SOPRANO may be dead or not, depending on how you viewed that diner scene in the finale, he’s back as a teenager in the prequel “Many Saints of Newark,” played by none other than MICHAEL GANDOLFINI, James's son. The film, though, doesn't thrive at the box office — unlike Sony Pictures’ Marvel sequel “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” which enjoys a huge opening.
Real-life tragedy strikes a movie set as a gunshot fired by actor ALEC BALDWIN accidentally kills cinematographer HALYNA HUTCHINS, horrifying an industry and spurring calls for all guns to be banned on sets.
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New this week to TV, streaming and more: Roddy Ricch, ‘Swan Song’ and ‘The Larkins’
Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File
It's not quite a BEATLES reunion, but the PETER JACKSON doc “Get Back” gives hungry fans eight hours of yet-unseen footage.
And it’s BRITNEY’s time: a judge finally terminates the conservatorship that controlled the pop singer’s life for nearly 14 years. “Best day ever,” she says.
SWIFT releases a 10-minute rendition of the blistering single “All Too Well.”
A saddened Broadway community says goodbye to STEPHEN SONDHEIM, beloved titan of musical theater.
Unimaginable tragedy strikes the music world: At a chaotic TRAVIS SCOTT concert, eight people (and later, two more, including a 9-year-old boy ) are killed as a crowd surges forward to the stage.
Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File
It's not quite a BEATLES reunion, but the PETER JACKSON doc “Get Back” gives hungry fans eight hours of yet-unseen footage.
And it’s BRITNEY’s time: a judge finally terminates the conservatorship that controlled the pop singer’s life for nearly 14 years. “Best day ever,” she says.
SWIFT releases a 10-minute rendition of the blistering single “All Too Well.”
A saddened Broadway community says goodbye to STEPHEN SONDHEIM, beloved titan of musical theater.
Unimaginable tragedy strikes the music world: At a chaotic TRAVIS SCOTT concert, eight people (and later, two more, including a 9-year-old boy ) are killed as a crowd surges forward to the stage.
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New this week to TV, streaming and more: Roddy Ricch, ‘Swan Song’ and ‘The Larkins’
Niko Tavernise/20th Century Studios via AP
More reunions and returns. SPIDER-MAN is back, as is 50-something CARRIE BRADSHAW (and buddies MIRANDA and CHARLOTTE but not SAMANTHA).
Nostalgia peaks with the exciting new “West Side Story” directed by STEVEN SPIELBERG, with screenplay by TONY KUSHNER and vivid choreography by JUSTIN PECK.
With more troubling pandemic news on the horizon, we can all do with a stirring distraction like this one — as we keep waiting, to paraphrase the Fab Four, to get back, get back, get back to where we once belonged.
Niko Tavernise/20th Century Studios via AP
More reunions and returns. SPIDER-MAN is back, as is 50-something CARRIE BRADSHAW (and buddies MIRANDA and CHARLOTTE but not SAMANTHA).
Nostalgia peaks with the exciting new “West Side Story” directed by STEVEN SPIELBERG, with screenplay by TONY KUSHNER and vivid choreography by JUSTIN PECK.
With more troubling pandemic news on the horizon, we can all do with a stirring distraction like this one — as we keep waiting, to paraphrase the Fab Four, to get back, get back, get back to where we once belonged.
