This week’s new entertainment releases include the first ever album of covers by Deep Purple, an acclaimed documentary about undersea explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau on Disney+ and a concert video of Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga

By The Associated Press

November 22, 2021, 2:55 PM

• 5 min read

Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week.

MOVIES

— Stephen Karam adapts his Tony-winning play “The Humans,” about three generations gathering in a prewar New York apartment for Thanksgiving, into a feature debuting on Showtime and in theaters on Wednesday. But be warned, this is not your traditional Thanksgiving fare, aside from the general dysfunction. With shades of horror and existential dread “The Humans” is, as Karam has described it, a “kind of family thriller.” The cast includes Richard Jenkins, Amy Schumer, Beanie Feldstein, Steven Yeun, June Squibb and Jayne Houdyshell, who is reprising her Tony-winning role.

— The acclaimed documentary “Becoming Cousteau” finally makes it to Disney+ on Wednesday. The film takes an inside look at the life of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the underwater adventurer, explorer and author who became a devoted environmentalist. Directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus, “Becoming Costeau,” is, as the AP’s Jake Coyle writes, “A defining documentary portrait of the French oceanographer — the real-life Steve Zissou — as a fish only truly content below the surface.”

— Nicolas Cage playing a truffle forager who is on a mission to save his beloved truffle pig from violent assailants sounds a bit like a parody. So it may come as a surprise that not only is “Pig” real, and serious, it is also one of the year’s best reviewed films. And, it’ll be available to stream on Hulu starting Friday. In the Los Angeles Times review of writer-director Michael Sarnoski’s debut, critic Noel Murray writes that, “though its plot follows the same rough outline of a ‘John Wick’-style shoot-em-up, ‘Pig’ is actually a quiet and often melancholy meditation on loss, anchored by a character who wishes he could shake free of the person he used to be.”

— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

MUSIC

— Deep Purple have been covered plenty of times so it's only natural that they turn the tables with “Turning to Crime,” their first-ever covers album. The band take on Huey “Piano” Smith’s “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” and Ray Charles and Quincy Jones’ exuberant “Let the Good Times Roll.” Elsewhere, the band tackles Bob Dylan’s “Watching the River Flow” and Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels “Jenny Takes a Ride!” The album is out Friday and fans can check out the video for the cover of Fleetwood Mac's “Oh Well." The album finds the band in a well, purple, patch following the release just over a years ago of their 21st studio album, “Whoosh!”

— The latest box set chronicling David Bowie's career from 1969 to the 21st century is out Friday. “David Bowie 5. Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001)” is an 11-CD box, 18-piece vinyl set and standard digital download box set. The collection is named after the penultimate track from the “Hours” album. The set contains some of Bowie’s most underrated and experimental material, including the albums “Black Tie White Noise,” “The Buddha of Suburbia,” “1. Outside,” “Earthing” and “Hours.” Bowie fanatics will also want to check out the legendary previously unreleased album, “Toy.”

— AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy

TELEVISION

— The intense focus on Gabby Petito’s disappearance and death ultimately drew attention to the unequal treatment given to missing people of color as compared to whites. It’s a fight that sisters-in-law Derrica and Natalie Wilson know well, as detailed in “Black and Missing,” a four-part documentary series debuting 8 p.m. EST Tuesday on HBO and HBO Max. The Wilsons created the grassroots Black and Missing Foundation to raise community and media awareness and boost police resources. Emmy-winners Soledad O’Brien and Geeta Gandbhir are among the docuseries’ makers.

— Daniel Dae Kim and Tony Goldwyn top the cast of National Geographic’s “The Hot Zone: Anthrax,” a dramatization of the deadly 2001 bacterial attacks. Described as a “scientific thriller,” the six-part series tracks FBI agents and scientists as they hunt for the source of tainted letters sent to targets in Florida, Washington, D.C., and New York. Enrico Colantoni plays New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, with Harry Hamlin as news anchor Tom Brokaw. The limited series, part of “The Hot Zone” anthology, airs at 9 p.m. EST on three consecutive nights beginning Sunday.

— Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga and the Great American Songbook are the stars of a CBS special showcasing the friends on duets and solos. “One Last Time: An Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga,” airing 8 p.m. EST Sunday, was taped at a pair of Radio City Music Hall shows last August. The New York concerts, which marked Bennett’s 95th birthday, were held shortly before he announced he was retiring from performing. Earlier this year, Bennett’s family revealed that the famed singer was diagnosed with dementia in 2016.

— AP Television Writer Lynn Elber

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Catch up on AP’s entertainment coverage here: https://apnews.com/apf-entertainment.

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