Sammy Younan

#SetTheVCR: July 26-August 1, 2020

Sammy Younan

Girth Radio Presents…

Lotta documentaries this week if only so I maintain my street rep: I keep it real. Ok, that may be terrible but these tv recommendations are not!

Sunday, July 26

Sammy Suggestion: Phone Booth (Anytime / Crave)

Joel Schumacher died about a month ago and of course, he was sadly immortalized by his prominent Batman movies (ok fine in his filmography those movies stuck out like bat-nipples. Happy?) He thankfully apologized for and attempted to distance himself for those Bat-failures. Thankfully Sam Rami has also apologized for the awful “evil dance sequence” in Spider-Man. Up next is David Goyer who has a multitude of sins and transgressions that warrant absolution. However, Schumacher’s obits mostly overlooked Phone Booth, a unique film with a Hitchcock-Hook: Colin Farrell is trapped inside a phone booth for the duration of the movie. It’s sort of like a reverse Inside Man…Outside Man? This movie came out in 2003 which feels like a lifetime ago; I enjoyed it at the time so I’m curious to know if it holds up or if Schumacher “phoned it in.”

Monday, July 27

Sammy Suggestion: Todd McFarlane: Like Hell I Won’t (Anytime / Syfy.com)

This Syfy Wire Todd McFarlane documentary opens with Todd confirming: “There’s a fine line between being diligent and persevering and being delusional or being an asshole…” Which is if you’ve ever met Todd is a completely Todd McFarlane thing to say. Even the title Like Hell I Won’t is so totally Todd. So how did he get here? How did we get here? David Oster’s comic book documentary which originally was broadcast on Syfy on July 25 is now on their website and will be added to YouTube soon. Some great inside baseball for comic book nerds.

Tuesday, July 28

Frontline: United States of Conspiracy (10 p.m. / PBS)

Sammy Suggestion: Stockton On My Mind (9 p.m. / HBO)

Michael D. Tubbs is the mayor of Stockton, California, and a mayoral activist for Universal Basic Income. As such this is an HBO documentary on his efforts to rebuild Stockton via powerful ideas like UBI, aka Universal Basic Income (next door in Oakland they’re also experimenting with UBI). 125 residents are getting $500 a month until January 2021. Similar to the UBI program we ran here in Ontario the results are positive and inspiring. And sadly rather timely as the pandemic has forced us to grapple with questions about work and life and money. If this is working in Stockton could this work in other cities?

Wednesday, July 29

The Speed Cubers (Anytime / Netflix)

Sammy Suggestion: No Limit Chronicles (9 p.m. / BET)

No Limit Chronicles is Master P’s Last Dance: a five-part docuseries. No word on how much of the doc focuses on P’s time with the Toronto Raptors making them say Ehh. #Rimshot! Looks decent. 5 parts is a lot of time…I mean I wanna watch this but 3 parts would be just fine. Master P and his crew are such a weird time in hip hop history; almost like they don’t quite fit. So strange. Well, let’s kick it old school shall we?

Thursday, July 30

Transformers: War For Cybertron Trilogy (Anytime / Netflix)

Sammy Suggestion: NBA Doubleheader (6 p.m. / TNT)

First Major League Baseball now: NBA Basketball returns. Thankfully a champion will be crowned as the 74th season of the National Basketball Association comes to the most unusual conclusion. It’s imperative a champion is declared even with these unprecedented circumstances otherwise it’s like watching a movie for an hour and a half and the ending has been edited out. Because everything is so different I can’t make predictions; truth is nobody can. So let’s sit back and watch what happens as it happens. Game one is Pelicans vs Jazz; Game 2 is Clippers vs Lakers. No fans so that’s weird: sports are now firmly and fully a TV Show.

Friday, July 31

The Umbrella Academy: Season 2 (Anytime / Netflix)
Muppets Now (Anytime / Disney+)
Beyoncé: Black Is King (Anytime / Disney+)

Sammy Suggestion: The Go-Go’s (9 p.m. / Showtime)

Since we’re all on Vacation I do wanna check out this Showtime’s Go-Go’s documentary! I don’t know anything about them just that they Got The Beat. No doubt I’ll fall Head Over Heals that is until We Don’t Get Along. It is a documentary so there will be conflict: today we all find out what’s make this band Go-Go. I’m done now.

Saturday, August 1

Sammy Suggestion: Jojo Rabbit (Anytime / HBO Max)

A ah…classic movie buddy comedy? A boy and his best friend: Hitler. Clearly it’s Taika Waititi’s darkly comic…I guess it’s more of a fable? Is that the right word for it? Fantasy? Fun? Pick an F word. Jojo Rabbit debuted on HBO (America) a couple of days ago; it’s now on Crave in Canada.