WE HAVE GOTTEN THROUGH WEEK ONE: HOW’S EVERYONE HOLDING UP?

by Therese Odell, posted in Uncategorized

Going Viral

Hello, hello. For your trusty blogger, it is Day Eight of Pandemic Madness and things are … well, you know. Had my first dream of my teeth falling out during the crisis, so I guess the stress is starting to get to me a little, but who isn’t feeling it right now? The entire state of California has been shut down, as has New York State, as has Illinois, and while I don’t anticipate my own state of Texas to shut down (I don’t trust my state government to do the right thing) I could see my city going on lockdown at any moment and I’m just now realizing that I need to replenish my box wine supplies. A GIRL IS STRESSED. And I’m not the only one:

Poor Fox News’ Laura Ingraham is in the I WANT TO SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER phase of the virus, God bless her.

Someone should tell her how viruses work.

Meanwhile, over on MSNBC, the stress got to Craig Fugate. On Katy Tur’s show, the former FEMA director yanked off his mic, called the interview “bullshit” and stormed off the set when another guest, Andy Slavitt, the former acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said Furgate’s suggestion that the best thing the federal government could do would be to get out of the states’ way wasn’t “helpful.”

Fugate and Slavitt made nice later:

In actual TV virus news:

Grey’s Anatomy has finally joined the other medical shows in donating their medical equipment to hospitals.

Showtime is offering a free 30-day trial to new customers.

The Daytime Emmys have been postponed. (Yo, what took so long?)

Jaime Oliver is hosting a Covid-19 inspired cooking show to help those in isolation: Jamie: Keep Cooking And Carry On. It will begin airing on Channel 4 in the U.K. on March 23.

Mike Schur, the creator of The Good Place continues to do good things:

Freeform will have a Disney princess marathon this weekend for a little much-needed escapism.

Sesame Workshop has launched several resources for bored kids on their website.

And The CW’s series, All American, is seeing a huge surge on Netflix. Thanks, Coronavirus!

In shit news, Fox News has returned to Twitter for some damn reason.

Game of Thrones actress Indira Varma; an FBI: Most Wanted crew member; Saints’ coach Sean Payton; and two Los Angeles Lakers have all tested positive, and sadly, Larry Edgeworth, an NBC News employee who contracted it has passed away. (See below in R.I.P.)

Over in movie news:

Disney will release Onward on Disney+ on April 3;  the Ben Affleck film, The Way Back will be released on video on demand on March 24; and the KJ Apa film I Still Believe will premiere on VOD on March 27. Here are more movies that will receive an early release on VOD thanks to this virus.

More delays: Minions: The Rise of Gru has been delayed because the animation studio in Paris has been unable to complete the film; Wonder Woman: 1984 may just premiere on video on demand and skip theaters altogether; and the Elvis movie Tom Hanks was working on when he caught Covid-19 has been suspended. Only just now. Come on, guys.

Disney has suspended global box office reporting for the foreseeable future.

Finally, in some depressingly predictable political news:

Senator Richard Burr, Senator Kelly Loeffler, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator James M. Inhofe, and Senator Ron Johnson all sold stocks last month after being briefed on the virus. Some of those senators, namely Burr and Loeffler, made a point to downplay the seriousness of the virus to the public (well, except for Burr, who this one time told a meeting of some North Carolinian businessmen that it was going to be a serious disruptor).

Even Tucker Carlson is grossed out by this and called for Burr’s resignation (it should be noted that the GOP didn’t like Burr much to begin with because of Burr’s somewhat reasonable positions on the intelligence agencies, but that’s a whole other thing):

We only know about these questionable stock trades because of rules in place that require Congresspeople to disclose certain financial information. The President of the United States and his family are not obligated by those same rules. We have no idea how much they might be profiting off of this whole thing.

During today’s press conference, NBC’s Peter Alexander asked the leader of our country what he would say to Americans who are scared and President Asshole replied that he was a “terrible reporter,” and attacked NBC and Comcast:

Another reporter followed up on President Shithead’s attack on Alexander only to have him double down that Alexander is “not a good journalist.”

Meanwhile in a bit of possibly overly optimistic news: The Olympic torch has arrived in Japan. Whether or not it will actually light the cauldron in July …

Alright, that’s what I’ve got for today. Reminders: Stay in, have a cup of tea or a pint, wash your hands, wait for this whole thing to blow over and don’t be a twat about it.

In Other TV News

Genuinely, there is no other news out there. This is it. This is our lives now. I mean, if I stretch, I’ve got a story about why Owen Wilson has never hosted Saturday Night Live which has nothing to do with the virus: he has stage fright. That’s it. That’s the whole story. Other than that? I’ve got a whole lot of nothing.

I wish I had more to offer to distract you from all of this, genuinely, and right now about the best I can do is give you this montage of a bunch of kids expressing pure joy at receiving baseballs at Major League Baseball games. I know I’m particularly fragile right now, but this made your trusty blogger choke up a little. (That’s a huge lie: it was a lot. Your trusty blogger’s husband came into the living room Foolish HQ and asked her what was wrong and why she was sobbing. BECAUSE EVERYTHING was the answer. It’s the only answer.)

Alright. This is your last chance to tell me which show you wish I would get back to recapping. Vote now or forever hold your peace.

In Development

Mark Your Calendar

  • What We Do in the Shadows returns on FX on April 15.
  • Run debuts on HBO on April 12.
  • Billions returns on Showtime on May 3.
  • Never Have I Ever will debut on Netflix on April 27.
  • I Know This Much is True will premiere on HBO on April 27.
  • Harley Quinn will return on DC Universe on April 3.
  • Pandemic: COVID-19 will premiere on Discovery and Science on March 25.
  • In the Cut will return on Bounce on April 1.
  • ACM Presents: Our Country will air on CBS on April 5.

R.I.P.

Larry Edgeworth, NBC employee who died of Covid-19

Susan Kesler, Editor on Cloak & Dagger, Midnight Texas, Heroes, Crossing Jordan, Zoo, The X-Files among many many others

Mal Sharpe, Man-on-the-street prankster

WATCH THIS

FRIDAY

Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness: Just trust me, this is going to be your next binge-watch. It literally has EVERYTHING. You have to watch this trailer, and then thank me in the comments. Netflix

The Blacklist: Two-part midseason premiere. 7 p.m., NBC

Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker: Octavia Spencer plays America’s first African-American self-made millionaire in this new limited series. Netflix

The Letter for the King: Basically, this is a teen Game of Thrones. It’s been receiving decent reviews, though, so who knows? Netflix

SATURDAY

X-Men: Dark Phoenix: I mean, listen. I haven’t heard great things about this, but it’s all HBO is offering, so. 7 p.m., HBO

The DNA of Murder with Paul Holes: “My Favorite Murder” fans know what it means to be “hot for Holes.” Season premiere. 6 p.m., Oxygen

SUNDAY

Curb Your Enthusiasm: I foresee an entire season predicated on social distancing in the future of this show. Season finale. 9 p.m., HBO

The Circus: Who could have guessed a global pandemic would close out this season? 7 p.m., Showtime

The Walking Dead: Michonne brings Virgil home. 8 p.m., AMC

 

FRI. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC Shark Tank
(repeat)		 20/20
(repeat)
CBS MacGyver
(repeat)		 Hawaii Five-0
(repeat)		 Blue Bloods
(repeat)
CW Penn & Teller: Fool Us
(repeat)		 Whose Line Is It Anyway?
(repeat)		 Whose Line Is It Anyway?
(repeat)		 Local
FOX Friday Night Smackdown (MAYBE. PROBABLY NOT.) Local
NBC The Blacklist
(new)		 The Blacklist
(new)		 Dateline
(new)

—

SAT. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30
ABC Shark Tank
(repeat)		 American Idol
(repeat)		 News/Local
CBS FBI
(repeat)		 NCIS: New Orleans
(repeat)		 48 Hours News/Local
FOX LEGO Masters
(repeat)		 9-1-1
(repeat)		 News/Local
NBC Ellen’s Game of Games
(repeat)		 Dateline News/
Local		 Saturday Night Live
(repeat)

—

SUN. 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC America’s Funniest Home Videos
(new)		 American Idol
(new)		 The Rookie
(new)
CBS 60 Minutes
(new)		 60 Minutes
(new)		 NCIS: Los Angeles
(new)		 NCIS: New Orleans
(new)
The CW Local Batwoman
(new)		 Supergirl
(new)		 Local
FOX The Simp-sons
(repeat)		 Bob’s Burgers
(repeat)		 The Simp-sons
(new)		 Duncan-ville
(new)		 Bob’s Burgers
(new)		 Family Guy
(repeat)		 Local/News
NBC Little Big Shots
(new)		 The Wall
(new)		 Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist
(new)		 Good Girls
(new)

10 thoughts on “WE HAVE GOTTEN THROUGH WEEK ONE: HOW’S EVERYONE HOLDING UP?”

  1. I voted for you to recap Fear The Walking Dead today because it was the only one without a vote and I felt bad for it, so that’s about where my headspace is right now.

    Reply

  3. Thank you for continuing to post. I read your work daily and I appreciate that you are talking about POTUS’s idiocy and possible good news coming out of it… somehow you are managing to talk about the pandemic in a way that doesn’t increase my anxiety. 🙂

    Also, I would start watching anything you were going to blog just because I love reading your work. And we all need something to watch to distract our minds right now.

    Reply

    1. Hey thanks so much, Betsy. These are trying times, and I don’t always know if what I’m doing is even worth it. Messages like yours mean more than you know. Take care of yourself.

      -T

      Reply

  5. As always, glad you’re at this. Just saw the news that Harvey Weinstein has tested positive for COVID-19. Poetic justice, right? Same for Rand Paul.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Therese OdellCancel reply