forecast Pop
“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” but these days, a guide through the seemingly endless flurry of pop culture offerings is just what we need. With that in mind, here is what’s on the radar screen in TV, music and film for the
Movies Big releases on Sept. 1: Tulip Fever.
Big picture: The romantic period drama, Tulip Fever, is like Romeo and Juliet meets The Nature of Things meets Titanic meets TV’s The Affair. (There are two kinds of people in this world: people poised to unleash squeals of joy when they read that description, and people that felt ill.) Set In 1634 century Amsterdam, a married woman (Alicia Vikander) begins an affair with a portrait artist. The star-crossed lovers hash a plan to leverage the booming market for tulip bulbs to raise money to start a new life together.
Forecast: Who knew tulips good be sexy and dangerous? I predict a new phenom of flower power on the silver screen. It won’t be long before Transformers 6: Enter the Perennialbots, Pixar’s A Garden’s Story, or the R-rated, edgy rom-com The Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees.
TV Big events: Narcos (Sept. 1, Netflix).
Big picture: Pablo Escobar is gone, and so is the actor (Wagner Moura), who deftly played him in Seasons 1 and 2 of this international series. But cocaine cartels are like monarchies. There’s a succession. The day Pablo went down, the Cali cartel became public enemy No. 1. While Pablo was a charismatic, unpredictable thug, the show’s new top dogs in Colombia are described as“Cocaine Incorporated”run“like a Fortune 500 company.” Pedro Pascal (Game of Throne’s short-lived Oberyn Martell) returns as DEA agent Javier Pena, once again stuck in a deadly battle that forces him to commit more than a few evils to stop the bad guys. To take down the Cali cartel, you’d have to be“crazy, stupid brave and lucky all at the same time.” Best of luck, Javier. Forecast: Narcos is always a time for greatTV lovers to feel high.
Music
Big releases on Sept. 1: LCD Soundsystem (American Dream), Joan Osborne (Songs of Bob Dylan).
Big picture: Breaking up is hard to do. After a five-year disband, LCD reunited this year to put out a fourth studio album. American Dream comes out as the U.S. seems to be living anything but. Maybe another dose of James Murphy and company’s addictive dance-rock is just what the continent needs. Rock, punk, disco, dance, funk and so forth are once again tossed-and-mixed in the band’s musical cauldron. Meanwhile, everyone has covered Bob Dylan, but Joan Osborne one-ups them with a track-for-track cover album of pop music’s greatest living bard. Listen as Osborne reinvents the likes of Highway 61 Revisited and Tangled Up in Blue.
Forecast: Osborne will start a trend. I predict Miley Cyrus (Songs of Elvis), Justin Timberlake (Songs of Johnny Cash), and Nickelback (Songs of ABBA).