New this week: Lizzo, ‘Criminal Minds’ and ‘The Woman King’ SPOTLIGHT
MOVIES
When the Mars Rover Opportunity, nicknamed Oppy, launched in 2003, it was only supposed to last 90 sols (or Mars days). But 15 years later it was still out there exploring. The documentary “Good Night Oppy,” coming to Prime Video on Wednesday, tells the story of not just Oppy and its counterpart Spirit, but the scientists and engineers who cared for the robots and their discoveries on Mars.
If you missed Viola Davis’s turn as an Agojie warrior in “The Woman King” in theaters, the Gina Prince-Bythewood epic will be available to rent on VOD starting Tuesday.
A loner vampire gets a surprise when a teenager shows up claiming to be his daughter in “Blood Relatives,” a road trip comedy/horror coming to Shudder on Tuesday. It’s the directorial debut of actor Noah Segan, a mainstay of Rian Johnson’s films, who stars as well alongside Victoria Moroles, as the teenage Jane.
Filmed over three years, during the “Cuz I Love You” tour, through the height of the pandemic and during the recording of “Special,” the new documentary “Love, Lizzo” is an intimate portrait of the superstar musician, with candid talk about bodies, self-love and being a Black woman. “Love, Lizzo” is streaming on HBO Max on Thursday.
MUSIC
A series of concerts Tom Petty considered a highlight of his career get a new life when “Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Live at the Fillmore” gets released on Friday, Nov. 25. It will feature recordings from the band’s 20-concert residency at the Fillmore in San Francisco between Jan. 10 and Feb. 7, 1997.
Rapper Rakim will bring fans back to the Golden Age of hip-hop Monday as he returns to his album “Paid in Full” during a pay-per-view livestream concert from New York City’s Sony Hall on the ICONN
Live App.
Josh Groban shows the world how he can fill New York City’s famed 6,000-seat Radio City Music Hall with “Great Performances: Josh Groban’s Great Big Radio City Show” on PBS on Friday, Nov. 25. Recorded in April 2022, it’s billed as “Groban’s love letter to New York City.”
TELEVISION
The risqué shows at Chippendale’s male strip clubs paled in comparison to the backstage melodrama created by the enterprise’s founder, Somen “Steve” Banerjee. The events, so steeped in greed and criminality that they’ve been recounted in movies, miniseries and documentaries, gets another look in Hulu’s “Welcome to Chippendales.” Kumail Nanjiani leads the cast that includes Murray Bartlett, Juliette Lewis, and Annaleigh Ashford in the series debuting with two episodes on
Tuesday.
“Pitch Perfect” fans of the movies in general and Adam Devine’s Bumper in particular are in luck. Peacock’s “Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin” finds the singer jumping at a chance to become a star in Germany with the help of Pieter Krämer’s Flula (from “Pitch Perfect 2”). Also along for the ride is Sarah Hyland, Devine’s castmate in their “Modern Family” days. The series will be out in full Wednesday on Peacock, with NBC viewers getting a taste of it when episode one airs Nov. 28.
It’s almost criminal how much people love crime dramas. But because they do, and because franchises are a solid bet, here comes “Criminal Minds: Evolution” on Paramount+. Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness and Aisha Tyler are among those reprising their original “Criminal Minds” roles in the spinoff.