DT’s weekly entertainment show, Between the Streams, is your guide to all of the hottest, most important, and (of course) dumbest new developments in streaming and entertainment, providing a handy recap of the week that was. Follow us here every Friday or add us via RSS, iTunes, or Stitcher at the links above to take BtS on the road!
We’re getting you ready for the weekend with our Weekend Box Office Preview, which starts and (pretty much) ends with Star Trek Beyond. The film — the first of the rebooted franchise directed by whiz-bang action vet Justin Lin — comes just ahead of the 50th anniversary of the very first show that started all. And luckily, for loyal fans of the franchise like ourselves, all sources point to this one being a rip-roaring good time.
The only question seems to be whether or not there’s too much action, as this definitely isn’t a Fast and Furious movie. However, we don’t really believe in that term for blockbuster sci-fi flicks, and besides, comedy auteur Simon Pegg (aka Scotty) helped write the script, which appears to have given these fine actors just enough to chew on to make it all come together.
We’ve also got another sleeper pick this week in comedian Mike Birbiglia’s Don’t Think Twice, a highly acclaimed dramedy about improv comics trying to make it in New York that stars greats like Keegan Michael Key, Birbiglia himself, and Community’s Gillian Jacobs.
But, that’s just a small part of today’s show, as we dig into a spoiler-free look at some excellent new TV, including the brilliant ’80s porn from Netflix that is rewriting the homage genre, Stranger Things. This show has virtually everything that made ’80s entertainment great, with shades of movies as diverse as Goonies and 16 Candles to Close Encounters and E.T. We love pretty much everything about it, including killer performances by the actors both child and adult, but our favorite part might just be the intro — it’s that good. Perhaps most interesting, this week star Matthew Modine has all but confirmed a second season is in the works.
We also discuss how the VCR is (finally) dead as the last one rolls off the assembly line this year, and talk about how it was, essentially, the first on-demand device available en masse.
And we’re just getting started. There’s also new trailers for both the Luke Cage and Iron Fist series coming to Netflix, a new series by Louis C.K. starring constant collaborator Pamela Adlon, Better Things — which looks a lot like a Louis spinoff — as well as a pretty intriguing teaser for Narcos season 2, and (time permitting) the new X-Men pilot coming to Fox, which focuses on a family running from the government when they realize their kids are mutants. As X-Men always has, the series will no doubt deal with a broader metaphor about diversity and understanding, and it’s also the first TV collaboration between Fox and Marvel.
All that and much more on this week’s Between the Streams!
