New this week: Mary J. Blige, Jennifer Lopez and Puppy Bowl
MOVIES
— Valentine’s Day means romantic comedies, and romantic comedies — often enough — mean Jennifer Lopez. The romcom mainstay of “Maid in Manhattan” and “The Wedding Planner” returns to the genre in “Marry Me,” which opens Friday in theaters and on Peacock. In it, she plays a J-Lo-like pop star who learns her fiancé has been cheating on her just before their wedding is to be televised. Heartbroken and distraught, she pulls a random fan (Owen Wilson) out of the audience who happens to be holding a “Marry Me” sign.
— Amazon Studios, too, has its own prominent rom-com offering, starring Charlie Day and Jenny Slate. In “I Want You Back,” they play a pair of dumped 30-somethings stewing over their breakups. The two friends conspire to ruin their ex’s new relationships to win them back. The film, which debuts Friday on Amazon Prime Video, is directed by Jason Orley.
— “KIMI,” which debuts Thursday on HBO Max, is Steven Soderbergh’s third movie for the streamer in just over a year. “KIMI,” scripted by David Koepp (”Jurassic Park”), stars Zoë Kravitz as an agoraphobic voice stream interpreter who believes she overheard a murder on a recording she’s analyzing.
MUSIC
— Mary J. Blige may have just said goodbye to viewers in the season finale of her Starz series “Power Book II: Ghost” but she’s not going away: Blige pops up in a big way this week with a new album out Friday and a spot in the Super Bowl halftime show. The 13-track album, called “Good Morning Gorgeous,” features Anderson .Paak, Usher, DJ Khaled, Dave East and Fivio Foreign.
— Spoon roar back with the 10-track, stripped-down rock ‘n’ roll album “Lucifer on the Sofa” out Friday. It marks the quintet’s first set of songs recorded in its hometown of Austin, Texas, in more than a decade, kicked off by the single “Wild.”
TELEVISION
— Joseph Sikora’s Tommy Egan is at the center of “Power Book IV: Force,” as is Chicago. It’s where Tommy ends up after ditching the familiar turf of New York, and executive producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson says the Windy City is both a character and a means of approaching the third “Power Book” spinoff with a clean slate and new tone. For Tommy, what was intended as a quick stop ends up plunging him into the city’s drug game and scheming to become its kingpin. Isaac Keys, Lili Simmons, Gabrielle Ryan and Shane Harper are among the cast members in the drama now on Starz.
— Gugu Mbatha-Raw and David Oyelowo star in HBO Max’s “The Girl Before,” adapted from novelist JP Delaney’s best-selling psychological thriller of the same name. Mbatha-Raw’s Jane is delighted to move into an impressively sleek, modern house, the work of an architect (Oyelowo) who requires occupants to follow his demanding rules. When Jane begins to discover parallels between her experience and that of previous tenant Emma (Jessica Plummer), the posh digs start to look far less appealing. The drama’s four episodes are out Thursday.
— Puppy Bowl is back! The event rides the coattails of that other, puppy-less bowl game and for the good cause of showcasing animal shelters, their dedicated staffers and the furry residents in need of homes. The three-hour event, on Discovery+ and Animal Planet at 2 p.m. EST Sunday features 118 adoptable players from 33 states.