Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
The launch of season 20 of “Grey’s Anatomy” and albums from Justin Timberlake and Kacey Musgraves are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: The dramedy “The Girls on the Bus” starring Melissa Benoist that follows female reporters embedded on a presidential campaign, Taylor Swift’s concert film “The Eras Tour” landing on Disney+ and the comedy “Girls5Eva” jumps from Peacock to Netflix for its third season.
New movies to stream
Taylor Swift’s concert film “The Eras Tour” is coming to Disney+ on Thursday, a day earlier than originally announced. The streaming cut features five new songs, including “Cardigan.” “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” was a phenomenon at the theatrical box office, grossing over $262 million worldwide in a groundbreaking deal with AMC Theaters, which released the film instead of a traditional Hollywood studio. In her review, AP Music Writer Maria Sherman wrote that the film is, “a near exact replica of her blockbuster concert performance, which recaps all 10 of her studio albums across 17 years of recorded work,” adding “it is the opportunity to have every seat in the house transform into the best seat in the house.”
Film editor Carla Gutiérrez (“RBG”) makes her directorial debut with “Frida,” an evocative portrait of artist Frida Kahlo told in her own words. Gutiérrez used Kahlo’s diary entries, letters, essays and her paintings to drive the narrative, which delves into her childhood, her marriage, her style, her accident and, of course, her art. “Uncovering her own words and her own voice, I think what we’re presenting is a new way of getting into her world and in her mind and her heart and really understanding the art in a more intimate, raw way,” Gutiérrez told the AP before the film’s Sundance premiere. It debuts on Prime Video on Thursday.
Nicolas Cage embraces the drab in Kristoffer Borgli’s “Dream Scenario” as Paul Matthews, a perfectly average college professor, husband and father whose life is turned upside down when millions of strangers start seeing him in their dreams. In her AP review Jocelyn Noveck wrote that“Borgli, the Norwegian writer-director making his English-language debut here (Ari Aster coproduces), is aiming for a broader statement about the nature of fame. And while the topic, which he’s broached before, may not be original, it’s ripe for exploration in the right hands – especially with an actor as inventive and unpredictable as Cage. Fame can be intoxicating, this film is saying, but it can and probably will turn on you in an instant.” It begins streaming on Max on Friday. And for the kids, “Trolls Band Together” arrives on Peacock on Thursday.
– AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr
New music to stream
With each album she releases, Kacey Musgraves demonstrates to her loyal listeners that there are no boundaries in her creative process. With “Deeper Well,” Musgraves’ is once again paving her own path. Her country has become folk, her songs are pretty and delicate with lyrics that find profundity in mundanity. It is soft and classic sounding, with hyper-specific language of the current moment. Maybe it dates these songs, maybe it plants them firmly in Musgraves’ reality. Whatever the case, they are affecting.
On “Man of the Woods,” Justin Timberlake’s last solo album released in 2018, JT looked to Americana sounds to find his next musical development. It was widely viewed as a critical misstep – a shallow attempt at innovation, mining familiar images of rural country life to mirror his new reality as a father. On “Everything I Thought It Was,” his first new album in six years, JT has done a 180. He’s returned to the ’00s R&B-pop sounds that made him a superstar in the first place. There are a few surprises as well: his boy band (asterisk)NSYNC has a feature, as does Tobe Nwigwe and the Afrobeats star Fireboy DML.
– AP Music Writer Maria Sherman
New shows to stream
Over the years, the characters on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” have achieved medical breakthroughs, crisis situations, office romances, staffing shakeups and three hospital name changes. We’ll see what’s in store for season 20 when the popular medical drama returns Thursday after filming was delayed due to the Hollywood strikes. This season, Ellen Pompeo – who plays Dr. Meredith Grey – will not be a series regular but will appear periodically. Shonda Rhimes’ other ABC show, the firefighter drama “Station 19,” also returns Thursday for its seventh and final season. Both shows stream next day on Hulu.
Another Liane Moriarty novel has gotten the TV treatment. In Peacock’s “Apples Never Fall,” Annette Bening plays a wife and mother who goes missing, leaving her adult kids suspicious of their father (played by Sam Neill). The cast also includes Jake Lacy and Alison Brie. All episodes of the limited series drop Thursday.
The comedy “Girls5Eva” has jumped from Peacock to Netflix for its third season. The musical comedy is about a girl group from the nineties who achieved a tiny bit of fame and are hoping to revive their celebrity status decades later. The show is executive produced by Tina Fey and stars Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Paula Pell and Busy Philipps. All six episodes of season three stream Thursday. Seasons one and two are also available for viewing on Netflix.
A new Apple TV+ limited series called “Manhunt” has made the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth into a political thriller. Tobias Menzies stars as Edwin Stanton, former Secretary of War, who led the search for Booth after Lincoln’s murder. The show is based on the book “Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer” by James L. Swanson. It premieres Friday.
Cozy PBS staple “Call the Midwife”
returns for its 13th season on Sunday, March 17 on PBS. The period drama, narrated by Vanessa Redgrave, follows nurses, midwives and nuns working in London’s East End and is based on a memoir called “Call the Midwife: A True Story of the East End in the 1950s” by Jennifer Worth. The new season is set in 1969. “Call the Midwife” will be able to stream to PBS station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS App.
– Alicia Rancilio