This week’s new streaming options include rapper Jack Harlow’s acting debut, the return of Kesha and new projects for a heart-warming HGTV show.
Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music and video game platforms this week.
NEW MUSIC TO STREAM
Check out Kesha’s new album for what “post-pop” sounds like.
That’s what the ever-changing pop star is calling her Rick Rubin-produced record “Gag Order.” Single “Fine Line” is an introspective, beatless ballad with the lyric “Am I bigger than Jesus/Or better off dead?/There’s a fine line between genius and crazy.” There’s also “Eat the Acid,” an experimental, mournful number.
Def Leppard is following in the footsteps of Metallica, the Scorpions and Bring Me the Horizon with an orchestral reworking of their catalogue. “Drastic Symphonies,” features the band’s greatest tracks reimagined by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Fifteen of the hard rockers’ hits like “Animal,” “Love Bites,” “Hysteria” and “Pour Some Sugar on Me” have a new sound.
May turns out to be a great month for 11-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Brandy Clark. Her Broadway musical “Shucked” was nominated for best original score and she’s got a new self-titled album out Friday. The album showcases Clark’s tenderness, with the 11 songs including a celebration of her home in “Northwest” and a loving tribute to her grandma with “She Smoked in the House.”
Ahead of its first post-pandemic album, Dave Matthews Band has released two strong singles, including the nostalgia-drenched “Monsters,” with the lyrics “Chutes and ladders/Pick up sticks/Counting cards and counting bricks/Driving past that old five and dime/Can’t get nothing for a nickel since a long long time.” The first single, “Madman’s Eyes,” leans into Middle Eastern rhythms for a darker song about the madness of violence. Both songs will be on the album “Walk Around the Moon,” out Friday.
NEW VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY
The Lego brand encompasses all sorts of pop culture icons, from “Star Wars” to “Seinfeld.” But sometimes you just want to build a Lego car and take it for a spin. In 2K Games’ Lego 2K Drive, you can assemble a high-speed racer brick by brick, then compete against your friends to find out who’s got the zippiest monster on the track. If you want to go off-road, you can turn your car into an all-terrain vehicle, a boat or even an aircraft. Visual Concepts, the studio behind the NBA 2K franchise, is promising a huge open world in which you can you take your driver from rookie to world champion — or just tool around smashing into things. Your Lego garage opens for business Friday on PlayStation 5/4, Xbox X/S/One, Nintendo Switch and PC.
“I awoke one morning to find I was a dog” is a heck of a way to open a video game. Humanity gets weirder from there. The dog is a glowing Shiba Inu, and his mission is to guide the human masses toward salvation at the end of the world. Sounds heavy, but the result is the sort of hypnotic puzzle game you’d expect from Enhance, the developers responsible for Tetris Effect and Rez Infinite. With 90-plus levels and the tools for users to build their own, Humanity could last for an eternity. The herding begins Tuesday on PlayStation 5/4 and PC.
NEW MOVIES TO STREAM
Three decades after Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson mixed it up on the blacktop, a new “White Men Can’t Jump” debuts. A remake of that 1992 film teams Sinqua Walls and rapper Jack Harlow as a pair of basketball players who hustle hoops for money and compete in a lucrative three-on-three tournament. The film opens Friday on Hulu.
Anna Nicole Smith gets the Netflix documentary treatment in “Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me.” The film, debuting Tuesday, chronicles Smith’s life as a model, Playboy playmate and reality star. Smith died in 2007 at the age of 39 from an accidental overdose.
Cristian Mungiu’s “R.M.N.” is one of the cinematic highlights of the first half of 2023. The latest from the acclaimed Romanian filmmaker (“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”) is a powerful microcosm of a migrant drama that has played out all around the world. A mountainous Transylvania village is increasingly torn apart by violent nationalist impulses that course through the town’s civic life in response to a handful of foreign workers. Currently playing in theaters, “R.M.N.” is available on demand beginning Friday.
NEW SERIES TO STREAM
Stock up on tissues because home renovation twins Drew and Jonathan Scott’s series “Celebrity IOU” is back with new episodes on HGTV. Each episode features a Hollywood star who dreams up a home renovation project for someone they want to give back to. Enter the Scott brothers who use their knowledge of construction to make it happen. This batch of eight episodes features Heidi Klum, Kristin Chenoweth, Glenn Close, Taraji P. Henson, Jay Leno, Derek Hough, Kristin Davis and Emma Roberts. “Celebrity IOU” returns Monday.
If you watched the “To All the Boys” movies, you probably remember scene-stealer Anna Cathcart as the confident, chatty kid sister, Kitty, to Lana Condor’s Lara Jean. Cathcart has landed her own spinoff series called “XO, Kitty.” Kitty travels to Korea to attend an elite boarding school where her long-distance boyfriend is a student. She imagines a seamless transition but quickly realizes life doesn’t always go as planned. All 10 episodes drop today on Netflix.
Wilderness expert and adventure-seeker Bear Grylls has never encountered a mountain he won’t climb or a random creature he won’t eat for fuel. Viewers have seen him on TV venture into the great outdoors with celebrities, but now he’s taking everyday people out of their comfort zone in a new show, “I Survived Bear Grylls.” The spinoff debuts today on TBS.
Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music and video game platforms this week.
NEW MUSIC TO STREAM
Check out Kesha’s new album for what “post-pop” sounds like.
That’s what the ever-changing pop star is calling her Rick Rubin-produced record “Gag Order.” Single “Fine Line” is an introspective, beatless ballad with the lyric “Am I bigger than Jesus/Or better off dead?/There’s a fine line between genius and crazy.” There’s also “Eat the Acid,” an experimental, mournful number.
Def Leppard is following in the footsteps of Metallica, the Scorpions and Bring Me the Horizon with an orchestral reworking of their catalogue. “Drastic Symphonies,” features the band’s greatest tracks reimagined by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Fifteen of the hard rockers’ hits like “Animal,” “Love Bites,” “Hysteria” and “Pour Some Sugar on Me” have a new sound.
May turns out to be a great month for 11-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Brandy Clark. Her Broadway musical “Shucked” was nominated for best original score and she’s got a new self-titled album out Friday. The album showcases Clark’s tenderness, with the 11 songs including a celebration of her home in “Northwest” and a loving tribute to her grandma with “She Smoked in the House.”
Ahead of its first post-pandemic album, Dave Matthews Band has released two strong singles, including the nostalgia-drenched “Monsters,” with the lyrics “Chutes and ladders/Pick up sticks/Counting cards and counting bricks/Driving past that old five and dime/Can’t get nothing for a nickel since a long long time.” The first single, “Madman’s Eyes,” leans into Middle Eastern rhythms for a darker song about the madness of violence. Both songs will be on the album “Walk Around the Moon,” out Friday.
— AP entertainment writer Mark Kennedy
NEW VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY
The Lego brand encompasses all sorts of pop culture icons, from “Star Wars” to “Seinfeld.” But sometimes you just want to build a Lego car and take it for a spin. In 2K Games’ Lego 2K Drive, you can assemble a high-speed racer brick by brick, then compete against your friends to find out who’s got the zippiest monster on the track. If you want to go off-road, you can turn your car into an all-terrain vehicle, a boat or even an aircraft. Visual Concepts, the studio behind the NBA 2K franchise, is promising a huge open world in which you can you take your driver from rookie to world champion — or just tool around smashing into things. Your Lego garage opens for business Friday on PlayStation 5/4, Xbox X/S/One, Nintendo Switch and PC.
“I awoke one morning to find I was a dog” is a heck of a way to open a video game. Humanity gets weirder from there. The dog is a glowing Shiba Inu, and his mission is to guide the human masses toward salvation at the end of the world. Sounds heavy, but the result is the sort of hypnotic puzzle game you’d expect from Enhance, the developers responsible for Tetris Effect and Rez Infinite. With 90-plus levels and the tools for users to build their own, Humanity could last for an eternity. The herding begins Tuesday on PlayStation 5/4 and PC.
— Lou Kesten
NEW MOVIES TO STREAM
Three decades after Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson mixed it up on the blacktop, a new “White Men Can’t Jump” debuts. A remake of that 1992 film teams Sinqua Walls and rapper Jack Harlow as a pair of basketball players who hustle hoops for money and compete in a lucrative three-on-three tournament. The film opens Friday on Hulu.
Anna Nicole Smith gets the Netflix documentary treatment in “Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me.” The film, debuting Tuesday, chronicles Smith’s life as a model, Playboy playmate and reality star. Smith died in 2007 at the age of 39 from an accidental overdose.
Cristian Mungiu’s “R.M.N.” is one of the cinematic highlights of the first half of 2023. The latest from the acclaimed Romanian filmmaker (“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”) is a powerful microcosm of a migrant drama that has played out all around the world. A mountainous Transylvania village is increasingly torn apart by violent nationalist impulses that course through the town’s civic life in response to a handful of foreign workers. Currently playing in theaters, “R.M.N.” is available on demand beginning Friday.
— AP film writer Jake Coyle
NEW SERIES TO STREAM
Stock up on tissues because home renovation twins Drew and Jonathan Scott’s series “Celebrity IOU” is back with new episodes on HGTV. Each episode features a Hollywood star who dreams up a home renovation project for someone they want to give back to. Enter the Scott brothers who use their knowledge of construction to make it happen. This batch of eight episodes features Heidi Klum, Kristin Chenoweth, Glenn Close, Taraji P. Henson, Jay Leno, Derek Hough, Kristin Davis and Emma Roberts. “Celebrity IOU” returns Monday.
If you watched the “To All the Boys” movies, you probably remember scene-stealer Anna Cathcart as the confident, chatty kid sister, Kitty, to Lana Condor’s Lara Jean. Cathcart has landed her own spinoff series called “XO, Kitty.” Kitty travels to Korea to attend an elite boarding school where her long-distance boyfriend is a student. She imagines a seamless transition but quickly realizes life doesn’t always go as planned. All 10 episodes drop today on Netflix.
Wilderness expert and adventure-seeker Bear Grylls has never encountered a mountain he won’t climb or a random creature he won’t eat for fuel. Viewers have seen him on TV venture into the great outdoors with celebrities, but now he’s taking everyday people out of their comfort zone in a new show, “I Survived Bear Grylls.” The spinoff debuts today on TBS.
— Alicia Rancilio
