New this week: ‘Clemency,’ HAIM, BET Awards, ‘Doctor Sleep’
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
■ “Clemency”: Alfre Woodard gives a career performance as death row prison warden on the eve of another execution in this shattering drama about the psychological trauma of the job, which is available on Hulu. Written and directed by Chinonye Chukwu, “Clemency” was well-reviewed but got unjustly overshadowed by some of the higher profile awards contenders when it was released in December.
■ “Doctor Sleep: The Director’s Cut”: This Danny Torrance-focused sequel to “The Shining” was a little divisive upon release, which wasn’t all that surprising. Anyone who plays with Stanley Kubrick’s iconography is bound to push some buttons. But director Mike Flanagan did manage the impossible task of pleasing both Stephen King and the Kubrick estate. And the film does have some undeniable pleasures, including Rebecca Ferguson’s turn as the villain. His three-hour director’s cut is available on HBOMax.
■ “Athlete A”: Maggie Nichols, aka Athlete A, was the first to bring a sexual abuse allegation against former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar. More than 500 women would follow. This new Netflix documentary from filmmakers Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk focuses on the survivors, the journalists who broke the story and the failings of the USAG to protect its young athletes from a predator.
— Film Writer
Lindsey Bahr
Music
■ Grey Daze: Fans of the late Grammy-winning screeching rock singer Chester Bennington will get a chance to hear him one more time. Before Linkin Park, Bennington was in the rock band Grey Daze and more than two decades after leaving the group, the album “Amends” featuring tracks from Grey Daze’s mid-90s catalog re-recorded last year with Bennington’s re-mastered vocals will be released. The remaining band members, Sean Dowdell, Mace Beyers and Cristin Davis, along with Bennington’s parents and widow Talinda, helped bring the project to life. The album is released three years after Bennington’s death.
■ HAIM: It’s been three years since sister trio HAIM have released a new album. “Women In Music Pt. III,” their third studio release, finds middle sis Danielle in the co-producer chair (along with frequent collaborators Ariel Rechtshaid and former Vampire Weekender Rostam Batmanglij). The album was originally supposed to be released in April but got pushed back — like most things in the world — because of the coronavirus pandemic.
■ Jessie Ware: English singer Jessie Ware is the sultry love doctor on her fourth album, “What’s Your Pleasure?” The project, originally to be released on
Juneteenth, was moved in deference to the Juneteenth holiday. Associated Press critic Cristina Jaleru says the album “delivers on every level.”
— Music Editor Mesfin Fekadu
Television
Amid America’s wrenching self-examination of racial attitudes and inequities, BET is touting its annual BET Awards as a much-needed celebration of black excellence in music, film, TV, sports and philanthropy. Actor-comedian Amanda Seales hosts the virtual ceremony airing 7 p.m. Sunday, with performers set to include Alicia Keys, DaBaby, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Lil Wayne and Usher. Drake, Megan Thee Stallion and Roddy Ricch are the leading nominees in the music categories, with LeBron James, Serena Williams and Simon Biles among those up for top athlete honors.
Showtime’s “Black Monday” is back to finish up season two after the cornavirus forced a pause in post-production. The comedy, which pivots around the October 1987 worldwide stock market crash that gives the series its name, returns 7 p.m. Sunday with four new weekly episodes starring Don Cheadle, Andrew Rannells and Regina Hall. Viewers who want to refresh their memory of the season’s first six episodes, or just savor anew Cheadle’s powerhouse performance, can head to Showtime’s streaming service.
The late writer Michelle McNamara’s investigation of a serial killer-rapist is explored in HBO’s “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” a sixpart docuseries debuting 9 p.m. Sunday. McNamara, the wife of comedian Patton Oswalt, had immersed herself in the crimes of the so-called Golden State Killer in the 1970s and ’80s in California. Her posthumously published book is the basis of the series that includes interviews with detectives, family members of victims and those who survived their attacker. In 2018, a former police officer was arrested in the case — two months after McNamara’s book