“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” Bob Dylan sang. But these days, a guide through the seemingly endless flurry of pop culture offerings is just what we need. With that in mind, here is what’s on the radar screen in TV, music and film for the coming week.
MOVIES
Big Releases on March 23: Pacific Rim: Uprising; Sherlock Gnomes
Big Picture: Poor humans. The Pacific Rim sequel finds us, “caught in a war between the monsters that destroyed our cities and the monsters we created to stop them.” (Rule of thumb: Creating monsters never ends well.) This sequel is like Godzilla meets Terminator 2: Rise of the Machines meets Voltron meets Transformers. Turns out the giant, piloted robots we built to combat giant alien monsters (Kaiju) have developed a life of their own. They’re no longer taking orders from their human pilots. John Boyega (Star Wars) stars as Jake, a rebel pilot with daddy issues (his pops was a famous fighter who sacrificed his life to beat the Kaiju). Jake is like Maverick from Top Gun without the sense of humour, or the down time for flirting and Righteous Brothers impersonations.
Before you can stop to think, a new crack team of pilots is assembled to helm our robots that haven’t gone over to the Dark Side. They appear to live off a pure diet of energy drinks and clichéd morale pep talks such as, “it doesn’t matter where you came from, who believed in you, and who didn’t.”
Meanwhile, Sherlock Gnomes is the animated sequel to 2011’s Gnomeo & Juliet. It finds the garden gnome duo employing the help of the titular gnome detective (voiced by Johnny Depp) to hunt down missing lawn ornaments. This animated franchise can be summed up as “garden gnomes come to life whenever humans aren’t looking” meets bad gnome puns.
Forecast: The Kaiju aren’t vanquished yet — this “uprising” will have multiple enemy fronts. But the Pacific Rim sequel lacks another larger-than-life figure: recent Oscar-winner Guillermo Del Toro directed the original, but stepped back into a producer role for the follow-up. Meanwhile, I predict the gnome franchise will become an epidemic. Upcoming instalments will include Gnomes Alone, Sweet Gnome Alabama, A Prairie Gnome Companion, I’ll Be Gnome for Christmas and Gnome on the Range.
Clik here to view.
Jaina Lee Ortiz in Station 19 [Kelsey McNeal/ABC]
Big Events: Krypton (March 21, Space); Station 19 (March 22, ABC, ); The Detail (March 25, CTV)
Big Picture: Krypton is Game of Thrones meets Superman meets science fiction. Released on the Man of Steel’s 80th anniversary, this prequel is largely set in Krypton decades before its famous destruction — and the release of the escape pod that dropped a super baby on the Kents’ Kansas farm. The plot centres on Superman’s grandfather, Seg-El — as played by Britain’s Cameron Cuffe. (BTW: essentially all Kryptonians are played by British actors; it must be a long-lost colony). Seg-El and is family take up arms against tyranny on their home world. We even get a time-travelling human in a ballcap to explain the stakes: “someone has come from the future to destroy Krypton because, where I’m from, your son becomes the greatest hero in the universe.” (The best news about a series set on Krypton: no depressing, anti-alien preaching from Batman.)
Meanwhile, Shonda Rhimes unveils a Grey’s Anatomy spinoff called Station 19 set near the soapy hospital: “three blocks down and into the fire,” to be exact. This one has all of Grey’s hallmarks. Jaina Lee Ortiz plays a driven firefighter who inherits the mantle of leadership from her father, but who still has time to be in a love triangle. (Grey’s legion of fans will be happy. Personally, I promised never to watch another firefighter series after the anti-hero perfection of Rescue Me.)
Finally, The Detail follows three female homicide detectives at different stages of their lives and careers. Angela Griffin, Shenae Grimes-Beech and Wendy Crewson co-star. They’re not angels and they don’t answer to anyone named Charlie. From the executive producers of Saving Hope and Rookie Blue, it promises “cop life, real life” as they balance work, home, friends and personal crises.
Forecast: Superman’s familial origin story follows the success of Batman’s own coming of age on Gotham. What’s next? An story about Aquaman’s early life as a bearded tadpole? Meanwhile, Station 19 and The Detail continue a positive trend toward more female leads in cable dramas.
Honourable Mention: Barry (March 25, HBO). Bill Hader plays a depressed hitman who finds a new lease on life after joining an acting class. Henry Winkler plays his teacher. It’s like Grosse Point Blank (1997) without the high school reunion. Expect dark zingers like, “You’re a killer, Barry. Acting is direct conflict for being someone who anonymously kills people.”
Clik here to view.
Jack White [Lyle Aspinall/Calgary Sun]
Big Releases on March 23: Jack White (Boarding House Reach); Toni Braxton (Sex and Cigarettes)
Big Picture: White recently revealed to Rolling Stone that one of his new tracks was inspired by a musical manuscript written by gangster Al Capone in Alcatraz. White purchased it, interpreted it and recorded it as the song Humoresque. (What have you done with your life lately?) The outspoken White also recently called for an “injection of new blood” in rock ’n’ roll to help rejuvenate the lagging genre. (I agree, but don’t we all want to see what Mick Jagger and Keith Richards look like on stage as centenarians?) Meanwhile, as far as I can tell from the title, R&B star Toni Braxton went back in time to the 1970s to create her new album — the ninth studio effort for the multi-Grammy winner. Her last album was a collaboration with Babyface called Love, Marriage & Divorce — so I suppose we shouldn’t begrudge her all the sex and cigarettes
Forecast: A visit to White’s musical house — even if the décor isn’t white stripes — is always a welcome invitation.