TV Preview: Making History (FOX)

By Sachin Hingoo

Time travel shows that use innocuous items to send their users years into the past are my beat here on Popshifter. The new FOX mid-season comedy Making History, though, is a very rare example of a network series that takes a cable concept (in this case, Comedy Central) and does nearly every part of it better by fully fleshing out and committing to its characters and their relationships, rather than watering them down in order to get to their next joke.
(more…)

TV Review: Time Traveling Bong

By Sachin Hingoo

In a scene at the end of Time Traveling Bong, Ilana Glazer’s Sharee wraps up a bonghit-punctuated journey by stating her discovery of “how shitty the world has been for women forever.” Though this is made really clear as Sharee goes through horrific witch trials before nearly being burned alive in 1600s Salem, is sexually harassed in the 1960s, and is indifferently probed right in the tit in a dystopian future. If Time Traveling Bong can be said to have a point at all (as if it needs one), it’s that Sharee needs to discover the plight of women throughout history in order to see how willingly and thoroughly she’s relinquished her own freedom and sense of agency in her current life.

(more…)

In Case You Missed It: April 24 – 30, 2016—Throwing Shade In The Green Room

By Less Lee Moore

Even Tommy Shelby wants to see more diversity in TV.

Did you know that April 8 is the day in Queer History that all homosexuals were cured? Hahaha, we’re just kidding. It’s actually the day that homosexuality was removed from the DSM.

And speaking of queer folks, here’s an open letter to the TV industry about why we’re so fucking sick of straight white dudes.

In other TV news, Sachin Hingoo bids farewell to Broad City until next season with the hilarious “Jews on a Plane” and Laury Scarbro reveals how all hell breaks loose on Outsiders in the appropriately titled episode, “All Hell.”

May is the month when the long-awaited Season 3 of Peaky Blinders arrives on our TV screens. Did you know David Bowie was a fan of the show? Try to keep your eyes from leaking when you read about what he sent to the show’s lead actor, Cillian Murphy. (Here’s a recent, wonderful, career-spanning interview with Mr. Murphy that includes some lovely photos.)

Everyone is talking about the talking animals in The Jungle Book movie but don’t forget about Jeremy Saulnier’s follow-up to Blue Ruin, called Green Room. Brian Baker took the plunge and reviewed this ultraviolent, ultra-brilliant film. You might forget about Hardcore Henry after you see it, though, as Tyler Hodg remarks in his review.

Meanwhile, on the home video front, Jeffery X Martin tackles the “bad crazy” with Arrow’s reissue of Niko Mastorakis’s The Zero Boys, Sachin has warm fuzzies over the white foam in the Blu of ‘80s schlock horror The Stuff, and Melissa Bratcher is delighted that Bayou Maharajah, the doc about infamous New Orleans piano player James Booker, is finally available for everyone to see.

Bone Tomahawk was my favorite movie of 2015 but I’ve never seen one entry in Charles Band’s bizarrely legendary Puppet Master series, so imagine my surprise (and delight?) to learn that the director behind Bone Tomahawk is helming the Band-less Puppet Master reboot. Modern Horrors has the deets.

Oh, and if you’ve always wanted to delve into actor Sho Kosugi’s career, The ScreamCast can help with their most recent podcast, “A Show on Sho.”

It’s been just over a week and we’re still trying to come to terms with a world without Prince. Here’s a stupendous 2009 article from the L.A. Times about the side of Prince that most people in the public rarely saw. Then, lighten up with this hilarious YouTube video, a compilation of all the times that Prince threw shade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4k-d88BEsI&feature=youtu.be

We have a ton of new music for you to check out this week: Tim Murr raves over the David Lynch aura of Dark Palms’ Hoxbar Ghost Town and insists that Grindmother’s Age Of Destruction is not a novelty album; Melissa calls The Jayhawks’ Paging Mr. Proust “a record for the ages” and marvels at the depth and breadth of Cherry Red’s latest comp, Another Splash of Colour: New Psychedelia in Britain 1980 – 1985; while X comforts us with the fact that at least Rob Zombie is good at coming up with song and album titles.

Could it be that Ke$ha is finally free? Find out about this and the “boycott Beyonce” movement on Unicorn Booty’s latest installment of NOW HEAR THIS!

Since tomorrow is a Monday (groan!), here is something that might make the day go a bit faster: a list of 11 hilarious and slightly political celebrities that you must follow on Twitter.

TV Review: Broad City S3 E10, “Jews on a Plane”

By Sachin Hingoo

“Shabbat shalom, motherfuckers.”—Ilana

When an episode of Broad City, set almost entirely on an airplane, starts with Maroon 5’s Adam Levine in an absolute fever dream of an airline safety video, you know it’s about to pop off. And pop off it does, because with Abbi and Ilana in the air, en route to Israel, there are no punches left to be pulled in this finale. I can safely say that “Jews on a Plane” is the perfect bookend to a near-flawless season of Broad City and is easily my favorite episode of a comedy show in which a person’s homemade tampon is mistaken for a bomb.

(more…)

In Case You Missed It: April 10 – 16, 2016–Bloody Knives and The Boob Tube

By Less Lee Moore

Congratulations to Rue Morgue Magazine for winning the RONDO AWARD for Best Magazine. What are the Rondo Hatton Awards?

“The Rondo awards, named after Rondo Hatton, an obscure B-movie villain of the 1940s, recognize the best in classic horror research, creativity and film preservation. This year’s e-mail vote, conducted by the Classic Horror Film Board, an 18-year old online community, drew a record of more than 3,400 votes as fans chose among 35 categories.”

Well done, Rue Morgue!

If you’re looking for some new music this week, might we suggest checking out Popshifter’s exclusive stream of Bloody Knives’ I Will Cut Your Heart Out For This, which dropped on April 15? It’s shoegaze, it’s goth, it’s got gorgeous vocals, and it’s loud as hell.

Also on the new music list is a live album from Professor Longhair recorded in 1976, the Nigerian music compilation Wake You Up! Volume 1, and eccentric pop singer Dinner’s Psychic Lovers. Meanwhile, on the Everything Is Scary blog, I discuss how Manchester duo Demdike Stare’s collages of sound and imagery provoke responses akin to nightmares.

Have you ever heard of Clela Rorex? She issued the first gay marriage license in Boulder, CO in 1975, thus helping to chip away at bigotry and homophobia.

Matt Keeley at Unicorn Booty discusses, in detail, how the recent trans episode of Powerpuff Girls is actually transphobic. But on the other hand, there’s also a heartwarming post about how Rihanna helped one of her gay fans come out. With all the news of homophobic celebs, it’s nice to read something positive.

In further TV news, Tyler Hodg has finished Season 10 of Trailer Park Boys on Netflix. Despite being mostly disappointed with this season, he thinks that the finale was excellent and might even make you cry, in addition to paving the way for an even better Season 11.

Laury Scarbro is equally smitten with the most recent episodes of Outsiders and Sachin Hingoo feels much the same about Broad City. Speaking of Broad City, Sachin has a preview of the upcoming mini-series Time Traveling Bong, starring Ilana Glazer and Paul W. Downs. Rue Morgue gives Tom Noonan, who stars in the SyFy TV version of 12 Monkeys, the “Sinister Seven” and Biff Bam Pop recaps the premiere episode of Season 4 of Orphan Black!

In the mood for gaming? Although Tim Ford at Everything As Scary thinks Don’t Starve: Shipwrecked is less scary than its predecessor, he still gives it a fair shake.

There is much to discuss on the movie front. The casting of Scarlett Johansson in the upcoming film adaptation of Japanese Manga Ghost in the Shell has many crying “whitewashing” (and for good reason). Jeffery X Martin looks at the Death Walks Twice Giallo box set from Arrow, I am gravely disappointed in new horror flick 13 Cameras, and Women and Hollywood has a list of women-centric films playing near you this week.

Finally, if you haven’t heard of Doreen Valiente, that should change. This VICE article points out that this mother of modern witchcraft was also a pro-choice spy.

TV Review: Broad City S3 E09, “Getting There”

By Sachin Hingoo

“Jews! Jews! Jews! JEWS! JEWS! JEWS! JEWS! JEWS!!”—Jews

Last week was the heaviest episode yet in Broad City’s run, and it seems that Ilana and Abbi felt that we needed a break after all that sobbing and drama. Enter “Getting There,” a tried-and-true Broad City madcap adventure through New York City, this time to the airport as Abbi and Ilana are headed for a destination that’s kept under wraps for most of the episode. This is the first half of the two-part season finale and if it’s going where I think it’s going, next week’s episode should be a real banger.

(more…)

TV Preview: Time Traveling Bong

By Sachin Hingoo

There are only a few episodes left in this season of Broad City, and when it wraps, I know I’m going to be fiending for more Ilana Glazer. Well, god save the kween, because she and Paul W. Downs (Broad City’s Trey) will star in a three-part miniseries called Time Traveling Bong that premieres right after Broad City’s season finale on, naturally, 4/20.

(more…)

TV Review: Broad City S3 E08, “Burning Bridges”

By Sachin Hingoo

“Am I at the farmer’s market? Because this is so juicy!”—Bevers

If there were any doubts—and I certainly had a few over the last couple of episodes—that Broad City was capable of a real, emotional epiphany and a story that evokes genuine feels from its viewers, “Burning Bridges” dashes them on a New York City sidewalk. Beyond the jokes about piss tests and securing a chair in Battery Park without inadvertently tearing off an amputee’s artificial leg, the events of this episode rocked me to the core because it’s a reckoning for Abbi as a character, while also giving us one of Ilana’s most layered performances on the show yet. No celebrity cameos are required here, because the BFFs are the only stars that “Burning Bridges” needs.

(more…)

In Case You Missed It: April 3 – April 9, 2016–Feminism, Iggy In Furs & Negan

By Less Lee Moore

Photo credit: Loma Vista

Hey, have you seen Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice yet? Did the onslaught of haterade scare you away? Read Tim Murr’s review and reconsider your negativity, man.

Lots of MRA types have been guzzling the haterade after watching the trailer for Star Wars: Rogue One. Here, Film School Rejects praises the oft-misunderstood “Mary Sue” qualities of the trailer, and many other movies. At Rue Morgue, Alex West gives Scream’s Gale Weathers some long overdue credit in “The Final Girl Chronicles.”

Is that too much feminism for you? Too bad. A new infographic proves Hollywood is still a boys’ club. If that didn’t convince you, here are two words: corpse boobs.

There are a lot of blockbusters and superheroes getting (deserved) attention these days, but sometimes you want something with fewer explosions. So if Canadian film Sleeping Giant is playing near you, please go see it. It’s a low-key but emotionally riveting film.

Meanwhile, on TV, Tyler Hodg is reviewing the tenth season of Trailer Park Boys on Netflix. I recapped the shocking season six finale of The Walking Dead, but Laury Scarbro (Yay! Welcome back!) has even more thoughts and feelings about it.

Two killer episodes of Lucha Underground and one (hilarious, natch) episode of Broad City are dissected by Sachin Hingoo and then… we try something completely different. Anime n00b Tyler tackles Brotherhoood Final Fantasy XV, currently watchable on YouTube.

Oh Iggy Pop. Where would my life be without you and your music? I attempt to explain in my concert review from the April 9 show at Toronto’s Sony Centre. Iggy and David Bowie go together like well, peanut butter and chocolate, so here are five times that David Bowie literally helped save the world. (I never get sick of talking about David Bowie.)

MOAR MUSIC! Melissa Bratcher talks about how Janiva Magness’s new album Love Wins Again made her cry and wonders if The Lumineers are doing OK. Brian Baker rides the waves with Shark Toys’ Outsider Sect LP, and Tim Murr goes full metal with Graves At Sea, Tombs, and the folk-metal stylings of Kralthazar.

There’s still so much more going on in music and Unicorn Booty knows you need the info. This week’s “Now Hear This!” dishes on Beyonce, funny feminists, Snoop Dogg and Janet Jackson, and the sad struggles of Ke$sha.

Until next time, Popshifter fans!
 

TV Review: Broad City S3 E07, “B&B-NYC”

By Sachin Hingoo

“In da klerb, we all fam!”
“What?”
“In. Da. Klerb. We. All. Fam”
“I..I don’t…”
“In the club, we’re all family. What, are you racist?”

(more…)