Ever since we were kids, we spent Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas with the Peanuts. This year, we can add New Year’s Eve to the mix because Charlie Brown and the gang are getting an NYE special called For Auld Lang Syne. It will premiere globally on Friday, December 10 on Apple TV+.
In the special, after the Peanuts gang experience a disappointing Christmas because Grandma can’t visit, Lucy resolves to throw herself the best New Year’s Eve party ever, while Charlie Brown struggles to accomplish just one of his resolutions before the clock strikes twelve.
If you are like me and you are already in the holiday mood, then you can watch It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and A Charlie Brown Christmas on the streaming service now.
I have to admit I was late to The Morning Show game because I am not a fan of Jennifer Aniston nor Reese Witherspoon. However, I gave in because of my hard news background and working at a national news network.
I was happy I did because I enjoyed it. I thought Aniston perfectly played the self I perceive her to be. A bitch! That and I liked how the story played out during the first season.
As much I adored it, the second season kicks the first one’s a$$. It is so good; I could not wait to see what happened next after each episode. It even made me even like Aniston, and I never thought that would happen. Damn you.
Before we get to all of that, you have to watch the season premiere episode, which is streaming on Apple TV+ now.
It starts out immediately after the season finale when Alex Levy (Aniston) and Bradley Jackson (Witherspoon) broke the news that the CEO knew that Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) was using his power to sexually harass and sleep with several women on the show. The powder keg just went off, and there will be a lot of bodies left in its wake.
One of them being Alex. She lost her husband via divorce and her job, all in a short period of time. Now, she is living far away from New York City, writing a book. However, there is a book coming out about the UBA scandal from Maggie Brener (Marcia Gay Harden), and Alex is terrified by what is in it. All of that has caused her to basically have a mental breakdown. However, she is liking her private life the way it is.
Then there is Corey Ellison (Billy Crudup), who is the new CEO of UBA. The ratings for The Morning Show are down, and he needs to get them up. He thinks he can do that by bringing Alex back.
That is something Bradley is not going to want. The two of them have not spoken in months. Plus, there is another opening at UBA, and she wants it. Anything not to do another song and dance number in the morning. Oh yes, there is a song and dance number at the beginning of the episode. It is as magnificent as you think it will be.
Now that Chip (Mark Duplass) is working in local news somewhere tiny; he has been replaced. Stella Bak (Greta Lee) is the new President of News. She is 33 and came from the online world. She is sick of the old way and wants to bring UBA into the 21st Century. However, no one respects her from Cory all the way down the chain. Mia (Karen Pittman) has been promoted to EP of The Morning Show, and no one respects her either.
Basically, it is all a mess. But since the episode takes place on New Year’s Eve, everyone is looking forward to 2020 and starting anew. If only they knew the sh!t storm that will be coming their way in two months.
That’s right; they deal with the beginning of COVID-19 as the season goes on. They, like us. watched it go from something that was happening to China to happening in our own backyard.
I wish I could tell that COVID-19 was the worst thing they deal with throughout the season, but it is far from it. There is still so much going on behind the scenes that it is amazing any of them will come out of this alive.
But I have said too much. All I will say is that it is worth subscribing to Apple TV+, if you don’t have it already, for The Morning Show. Seriously, I still can’t believe I am saying this about a show Aniston is on, but her character is really vulnerable, and she plays it perfectly. But, again, I said too much.
So I will stop talking now and tell you to stream new episodes every Friday. It is just so so good.
Apple TV+ released a photo of Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone from Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, and people are saying that the Oscar winner is unrecognizable. I don’t know why because I can totally tell it is him. What about you?
So what is this film all about? It is set in “1920s Oklahoma and depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror.”
If it sounds like something you want to see, then it will be coming to the streaming service soon.
Sometimes the past repeats itself. Today, Calls, which is now streaming on Apple TV+, is doing just that. They are taking us back to the days when shows aired on the radio, and we had to imagine what the story we were listening to looked like. By picturing what was going, it made the story even more chilling because your mind can and will play tricks on you.
For example, Orson Wells made people believe on Halloween in 1938, that New Jersey was being attacked by Martians. When you can’t see what is going on, it makes things even scarier and more believable. They say seeing is believing, but what happens when you can’t see anything? Calls is working with that concept, and giving us a television series with no images.
All we can do is listen to the strange phone calls that are going on between two people. Have you ever been talking to someone, and then you hear something odd in the background, and the person you are talking to has suddenly stops talking. In your mind, you are imagining the most horrific thing is happening until they speak to you again.
Instead of this being a one-sided conversation, you are listening to conversations of several people in nine different episodes. The voices behind the phone calls are Nicholas Braun, Clancy Brown, Lily Collins, Rosario Dawson, Mark Duplass, Karen Gillan, Judy Greer, Paul Walter Hauser, Danny Huston, Nick Jonas, Riley Keough, Joey King, Stephen Lang, Jaeden Martell, Paola Nuñez, Pedro Pascal, Edi Patterson, Aubrey Plaza, Danny Pudi, Ben Schwartz, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Jennifer Tilly.
Imagine you are an old school phone operator listening in the conversations of strangers, and something strange is going on. That is exactly what you are doing the second you press play on this intense and thrilling drama.
In episode 1 – A man calls his girlfriend in NYC, and then his mistress in Los Angeles, where he lives now. While on the phone with his mistress, she calls him on the same line. And it just gets weirder from that point on.
In episode 2 – A man runs out on his wife after she tells him she was pregnant. Every time he calls someone, days and then years have passed by. However, for him, it is the same day, and only minutes have passed since his last phone to them.
In episode 3 – A man gets a call from his neighbor to check on his house because he had already left for the airport. When the man gets there, he notices that the door is wide open. The neighbor asks him to look inside the house, including his bedroom closet. When the man opens up the closet door, he sees a box inside and takes that box back to his house with him. What happens next changes the man’s life forever. And it has nothing to do with the contents of the box.
In episode 4 – A woman’s marriage is on the rocks because her sister is a hypochondriac. While the woman is on the phone with her husband trying to save her marriage, her sister calls her and says that this is the sickest she has ever felt. Is her sister really sick this time?
In episode 5- A man accidentally shoots and kills his fiancee, so he calls 911 to report the murder. Then while he is on the phone with the 911 operator, his dead fiancee calls him. How is that possible?
In episode 6 – A man is in jail for killing someone he didn’t, or at least he does not have any memory of killing her. His friend says that he left a message confessing to the murder, but he doesn’t remember making the call. Did he black out the murder?
In episode 7 – A 21-year-old girl calls her mom from the future due to a glitch that allows her to do it. When she gets in touch with her mom, she then has to convince her that she is the future version of the 8-year-old girl who is calling her from 13 years in the future. Why is the call so important? She has to tell her not to do something on a future date. What happens when her mom from the past gets to that date. Another glitch allows her to find out.
In episode 8 – A pilot calls his young daughter from the plane, and she tells him that her mom, his wife, is crying because she told her that he just died. Then the stewardess tells the pilot that the passengers on the flight just saw on the news that the plane they are on crashed. How could that be if we are listening to their conversation?
All of this leads to episode 9 that wraps up this season brilliantly.
After these episodes end, you are going to want to listen to it all over again to hear what you missed.
I honestly cannot remember the last time a series blew me away like this one. It could be because I had to use my imagination, and I have one that is warped and very visual. I think I made the scenarios scarier and more intense because of that. Not that I am complaining because I loved every minute of this first season.
The season is roughly four hours long. After you hit stop for the last time, it will like no time has passed since you hit play for the first one.
Since we all have time on our hands, this is the perfect way to waste it. It is something different, original, and exciting. Something we all need these days.
Calls is based on the French show created by Timothée Hochet that aired on Canal+.
Just one final thought, you might want to put your phones on mute or shut them off when you are watching the drama. There is nothing scarier than hearing your phone ring while you are watching Calls.
Snoopy and the Peanuts Gang have been on our television since 1965. Ever since then, people who walk on two legs have been watching and enjoying him. But what about those who walk on four legs as he does?
Since Apple TV+ just beautifully revived the series, they asked that very question. Several masters sent in videos of their best friends watching the black and white animated dog. Did the puppies enjoy it? They all think the show is wooferful.
I tried to get my cat to watch, but all she wanted to do was eat Woodstock, the bird. Maybe I should not have bought her stuffed animal that looks him to destroy?
