Washington Black is a sweeping Hulu limited series adapted from Esi Edugyan's acclaimed 2018 novel, a coming-of-age adventure that carries its hero from bondage to the far corners of the globe. Ernest Kingsley Jr. stars as the adult George Washington “Wash” Black, a boy born into slavery on a Barbados sugar plantation whose prodigious scientific gifts are recognized by an eccentric abolitionist inventor. When a death forces him to flee, Wash embarks on an odyssey across oceans and continents that transforms him from fugitive to scientist, artist, and explorer.
Sterling K. Brown, who also executive produces, plays Medwin Harris, a charismatic community leader in Halifax whose role is expanded from the novel, while Eddie Karanja plays the younger Wash and Tom Ellis, Iola Evans, and Sharon Duncan-Brewster fill out the cast. Told across dual timelines and multiple continents, the series pairs the propulsive momentum of a nineteenth-century adventure yarn with a thoughtful meditation on freedom, identity, and who gets to author their own story.
Adapting a novel that won Canada's Giller Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker, the series reaches for the grandeur of classic adventure storytelling while centering a Black hero's journey toward self-invention. Lavishly mounted and spanning locations from the Caribbean to the Arctic, Washington Black streams on Hulu.
Reality television has come a long way but a shoot off competition seems to be heading in the wrong direction. But the premise works! This popular program combines sharpshooting with challenging elimination rounds until there is only one left standing. Beginning with sixteen contestants who are then split up into two teams (eight to a team) they face a variety of shoot off challenges. They have time to familiarize themselves with each weapon used with help from a well experienced trainer before taking on the next challenge and the team with best scores will win the day's competition and are safe from elimination (similar to other reality show competitions but with guns). Colby Donaldson, from the TV reality series Survivor hosts Top Shot and he will hand out the $100,000 prize. Contestants include retired police officers, a former Federal Air Marshall and firearms instructor, former Marine and US Army soldier who is a 4 time winner of the "Rifle Expert" award, member of the USA National Rifle Team, and a competition shooter that was platoon commander with the British Army. They are a very capable and competitive group of contestants that make this much more than merely a shooting range competition.
Needing to get a job recently divorced Danielle Santino decided to become a therapist and work with a pro football team in Long Island. In reality it was Dr. Donna Dannenfelser and she worked initially with the New York Jets, starting a new trend in therapy involving her "tough love" approach to caring for those asking for her help. Soon she found that besides athletes, politicians, musicians, and other celebrity types began requesting her style of therapy for its effectiveness and benefits. It also gave the doctor problems when she needed to balance her job as parent with the new career of therapist. Originally titled Dr. Donna, Necessary Roughness became reality and is proving to be valuable for the many who have tried it. Callie Thorne (Rescue Me, Homicide: Life on the Streets) is Dr. Dani Santino, Marc Blucas (Knight & Day, Inglorious Bastards) is Matthew Donnally romantic interest of Dr. Santino and athletic trainer, Scott Cohen (Jacob's Ladder, The 10th Kingdom) is Nico Careles, former Navy SEAL who works closely with Dr. Santino as her "fixer". Crisp writing and quality casting make this an endearing program to watch.
Las Vegas, Nevada is a fun place and reality television fits in there perfectly! With locations such as Las Vegas, Hollywood, Brooklyn (also New York City itself), and Washington, DC the show is always topical and fresh. The locations are sometimes repeated when they've been successful, such as Vegas and New York (although the trip back to the Big Apple was dedicated to Brooklyn specifically). A group of individuals participate in the challenges before them and all reside as housemates in comfortable accommodations where they need to learn to get along with one another and must participate in each task or job as they are assigned or they must leave the program. The tasks generally consist of a single job that runs the length of the season. Most recently they worked with a charity named the Athlete Recovery Fund in which they were assigned weekly jobs such as events involving motorbikes and a guest, Carey Hart, who is a renowned biker. Other seasons have dealt with substance abuse, prejudice, and irresponsible immature behavior (remember, they are all housed together!).
Watching CeCe Jones and Rocky Blue fulfilling their dream of becoming dancers shows the rest of us that all things are possible. The two girls get the opportunity to become background dancers in the locally presented show Shake It Up, Chicago and begin on an adventure filled with misadventures, troubles, and plenty of fun along the way. A buddy and dance concept has been used previously by Disney (Sonny With A Chance & The Famous Jett Jackson), and this time around it's about dreams coming true. Family trials and tribulation are included as well as competition among siblings. The series even spun off an album titled Shake It Up: Break It Down with the title song performed by Selena Gomez. Stars include 14 year old Bella Thorne as CeCe Jones (Forget Me Not, Craw Lake), 15 year old Zendaya Coleman (Kidz Bop "˜Hot n Cold') as Rocky Blue, and Adam Irigoyen as the girls best buddy, Deuce Martinez. Also starring are Roshon Fegen, Caroline Sunshine, Kenton Duty, and Davis Cleveland. Great music and enjoyable dancing make this Disney Channel series well worth watching!
The National Terrorism Strike Force: San Diego: Sport Utility Vehicle is now in force so we can feel much safer"¦ right? Well maybe. This clandestine team includes government agents who are working to protect California's San Diego from all those threatening terrorists who want to destroy that great little peaceful sea side town. Evil countries such as Mexico, Guam, and even Canada are plotting against the U.S. according to the NTSF: SD: SUV. And even though this highly trained team of operatives is determined to save our fannies from death and destruction from the "up to no good" terrorists, we the people of San Diego doubt the group can live up to the hype. This hilarious comedy, filled with yelling, action, suspense, drama, cliffhangers, more yelling, and plenty of suspense was created by and stars Paul Scheer (Children's Hospital, Happy Endings) as Trent Hauser, Brandon Johnson (Children's Hospital, Conan) as Alphonse, and Kate Mulgrew (The Black Donnellys, Admiral Janeway from various Star Trek series). Guest stars include Jeff Goldblum, Moon Bloodgood, Adam Scott, Jerry O'Connell, and JK Simmons. They go about their business using a fleet of SUV's, absolute gas guzzlers
As if anyone needs to be reminded, we love our fighting men (and women) and cannot wait for them to return home to us. This latest reality type show presented on the Lifetime Network could be considered a reality tearjerker because there are many crying children and adults involved. But these are all tears of joy because their loved ones have returned safely from active duty in the military. Whether they served in Afghanistan or Iraq, all they really want to do is return home safely and see their family again. Children miss their daddy or mommy and emotions run high in anticipation of their safe return. Now take those tender moments and put them onto the television screen before millions of viewers and you can see where this idea may get really personal. It's almost amazing how many of these veterans opt to put their family through the emotional intensity of their sudden arrival. The show brings these veterans home quite unannounced in order to see just how high their loved ones emotions can be. Hosted by Matthew Rogers (American Idol contestant).
If you have ever wanted to use your bare toes or bare fingers to catch catfish then you might want to watch Hillbilly Handfishin'. Even if you've not quite "into" that as a sport you will definitely find this new reality show entertaining and fun. It's actually quite popular among city folk because they can see another side to human nature when competing against the wise and wary catfish, which can sometimes grow to over 100 pounds. Big Fish Adventures is a family run business that is based in Temple, Oklahoma and run by the Bivins family. Some of the tourists who come for the noodling (fishing for catfish with just their bare feet and hands) include a group of Chicago police officers, a funeral director with his daughter, and a party of mothers who love the outdoors. A widely diverse variety of people seem to love the challenge and just being in the "great outdoors" commuting with nature. Although Hillbilly Handfishin' is set in the state of Oklahoma it could be almost anywhere there are catfish and shallow slow moving water.
The premise here is that Devin Grissom, lovely and lovable Southern gal from the state of Alabama needs to find a man who can win her heart, and please her family as well. A dedicated sports fan (especially football), Devin wants her future to include someone who can keep her happy forever just like her folks who were high school sweethearts. In this reality series she can choose from among 20 fellows, ten country guys and ten from the big city. The men compete in various challenges in hopes of winning some time with the Southern Belle, and at the end of each episode she tells one suitor goodbye for good. Among the competitors are: Adam Moyer grew up on a horse farm and compares the personalities of horses to women. Tribble Reese, a Birmingham, Alabama bartender and former college football player. Collin Varallo, southern gent and landscaper who prefers to court southern belles. Jason Maxim, Hollywood California entrepreneur with his own line of "Maxim" products to offer. Michael Dean, extremely health conscious personal trainer from Las Vegas who's looking for a down home southern gal to get serious about. Brian Wilson, French speaking music manager from LA who's mother who travelled with him and his siblings around the world.
An Australian TV mockumentary, Angry Boys has what it takes to make reality television fun to watch. Take a set of teenage twin brothers from Australia, a rapper from Los Angeles, California, a young Japanese boy who wants to become a champion surfer, and an assortment of other characters who drift in and out of the weekly shows and you have a strange combination that somehow works in the "reality TV" format. It's about the typical issues faced by young males in this, the 21st century. The peer pressures, the hopes and dreams all young people have to begin with. Some see their dreams come true, some simply go another route to find happiness. Twins Nathan and Daniel live with their mother and step dad and lead average lives but Nathan happens to be almost entirely deaf. His brother, Daniel decides to give him a great going away present (before Nathan goes off to a school for the deaf) and invite a few of their heroes to attend. Those include a rap artist from LA, S mouse, a surf pro, Tim Okazaki, and a bikini clad model named Emily Chase. Some unusual character combinations make this fun and interesting viewing.
The Best Dance Crew in America today announcements come with a price. Someone must lose and that means some really talented people must give way to those who are perhaps just a bit luckier on that particular day. Or they're just flat out more talented! Each week of the competition we see the show begin with auditions from multiple areas of the country. Most recently they were Los Angeles, California, New York, Huston, Texas, and Chicago, Illinois. From that diverse mixture judges must select the best and most promising. Celebrity judges include Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West, Katy Perry, and The Black Eyed Peas. Each crew must perform music from a specific artist for the weekly showdown. It may be the work of Lil Wayne or Rihanna or other talents who allow their performances to be mimicked by the contenders. Winners of each season will receive a prize of $100,000 so the competition is taken quite seriously by all. Audience (including home viewers) can vote for their favorites and as the competition narrows it becomes tense and those who survive each week are more determined than ever to win.
