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
— Can a movie be a blockbuster on Netflix? That’s what “Red Notice,” available at home on Friday, hopes to accomplish. The comedy-action film has a big screen budget of over $160 million and three major movie stars in Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds. It’s the kind of billing where you almost don’t need to know what it’s about (a globe-trotting treasure hunt, international criminals and Johnson as an FBI agent) or what the critics are saying (not at lot of good so far). To be fair, this started out as a Universal film, but like last week’s Apple TV+ Tom Hanks offering “Finch,” it was sold to the streamer in the first summer of the pandemic.
— There’s also some new offerings for the family (or just the kids) in “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” coming to Paramount + on Wednesday and “Home Sweet Home Alone,” streaming on Disney+ on Friday. The Clifford pic brings the beloved Scholastic pup to the home of a middle schooler (Darby Camp, who played Reese Witherspoon’s daughter in “Big Little Lies”) struggling to fit in in New York City. “Home Sweet Home Alone,” meanwhile, is somehow the sixth “Home Alone” spinoff. But this one recruits talent like Ellie Kemper, Rob Delaney, Kenan Thompson and Chris Parnell, who might just make this one worth checking out.
— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr
MUSIC
— Taylor Swift’s 2012 album “Red” straddled the line between country and pop, as she started working with new producers and expanded her sound. Now fans will get a chance to hear more from her transition period with the release of “Red (Taylor’s Version)” out on Friday, which is expanded to 30 tracks. The album features hits like “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and “22” and the re-recorded version include duets with Ed Sheeran, Chris Stapleton and Phoebe Bridgers. She added her own version of “Better Man,” which was first recorded by Little Big Town, and a 10-minute long version of “All Too Well.”
— Silk Sonic, the superstar duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, came out of the gate with a Grammy performance of their No. 1 hit “Leave the Door Open” earlier this year and their debut collaborative project is finally dropping. If the first single is any indication, “An Evening with Silk Sonic,” out on Friday, will be full of ’70s inspired smooth R&B grooves perfect for the dance floor. According the album’s intro, the duo was dubbed Silk Sonic by none other than funk star Bootsy Collins, a high honor indeed.
— Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett is back with new music after an extended lockdown in her native country due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On her third solo record, “Things Take Time, Take Time,” out on Friday, the singer embraces the slowdown on songs like “Rae Street” where she reflects on the people she can see from her window. “Time is money, and money is no man’s friend,” the Grammy-nominated singer says. If you have extra time on your hands, fans can remix some of her new songs with an interactive stem mixer on her website, allowing users to adjust or fade different instruments or vocals.
— AP Entertainment Writer Kristin M. Hall
TELEVISION
— In the 2013 finale of “Dexter,” Michael C. Hall’s serial killer is seen alive and working in a Pacific Northwest lumber camp after disappearing off the Florida coast. Hall, who shared others’ disappointment with the ending, is back to set things right in Showtime’s “Dexter: New Blood.” Set a decade after the series’ end, the 10-episode sequel finds Dexter Morgan living in an upstate New York town as local store worker Jim Lindsay. Part of his new life: Harrison (Jack Alcott), the son that Dexter left behind and, in a truly haunting return, his late sister, Deb (Jennifer Carpenter).
— Human rights activists are the stars of “The Young Leaders — One Young World Stories,” a documentary debuting 7 p.m. EDT Thursday, on Ovation TV. Among them: a Rwanda genocide survivor who founded an organization to promote healing through art, and a Brazilian who emerged from poverty in Sao Paolo to study at Harvard and become an elected official in her country. They and others profiled in the film are among the “ambassadors” for One Young World, a global forum that identifies and connects a new generation of leaders whose shared goal is to “create a better world.”
— Jeremy Renner, Dianne Wiest and Kyle Chandler head the cast of “Mayor of Kingstown,” a Paramount+ series created by “Yellowstone” producer Taylor Sheridan and Hugh Dillon. Set in a Michigan city whose only going concern is its prison industry, the 10-episode drama focuses on the McLusky family, described as powerbrokers trying to bring “order and justice to a town that has neither.” There are brawls and car crashes in store per a series trailer, so the struggle is more than philosophical. Dillon, seen as Sheriff Donnie Haskell in “Yellowstone,” also appears in the new series debuting Sunday.
— AP Television Writer Lynn Elber
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