The It List is Yahoo’s weekly look at the best in pop culture, including movies, music, TV, streaming, games, books, podcasts and more. Here are our picks for June 12-18, including the best deals we could find for each.
STREAM IT: Documentarian dad conducts Oscar-nominated social experiment with daughter in How Do You Measure a Year?
As the old adage goes, they grow up so fast (they really do). And while many parents look for creative ways to commemorate their kids’ coming-of-age process, Jay Rosenblatt is likely the only one to earn an Oscar nomination for it. On each of her birthdays for 17 years, the When We Were Bullies documentarian asked his daughter Ella the same set of questions (“What do you want to do when you grow up?” “What do you want to say to your older self?”), and the result is a touching and telling portrayal of maturation, ideals and aspirations in the modern world that earned the Rosenblatts an Academy Award nom for Best Documentary Short. Watch an exclusive clip (from age 11) above. — Kevin Polowy
How Do You Measure a Year? premieres Wednesday, June 14 on HBO and Max.
WATCH IT: The Big D offers audiences another shot at falling in love with it
This reality show, which was canceled by TBS and saved by USA, places 10 divorced couples in a tropical villa, where they’ll attempt to find love again. Not only in front of their ex but possibly with them. Awkward! “I still care about him even though I’m a little dead inside,” contestant Gillian says of her ex, David. They’ve been divorced for just seven months, and he already wants her back. Badly. “I’m crawling on my belly,” he says, “and I want to do this for us. I wanna work on our marriage again.” Brooks and Casey are in a much different place — well, at least she is. She says that Brooks attempts to get back with her “every single day,” while she wants him to “get laid and meet a hottie.” Overseeing all this chaos are hosts JoJo Fletcher, a former star of The Bachelorette, and her husband Jordan Rodgers, whom she gave the final rose to on her season. — Raechal Shewfelt
The Big D premieres Wednesday, June 14 at 10 p.m. on USA.
STREAM IT: Look Into My Eyes is AMC’s latest True Crime Story
Prepare to be hypnotized by the latest installment in AMC’s True Crime Story franchise. This particular four-part docuseries recounts the exploits of Dr. George Kenney, a former Florida high school principal who used his pupils as guinea pigs for his extracurricular activities in hypnosis. Kenney eventually lost his job following the 2011 deaths of three students, at which point local journalists were clued into his involvement. Over a decade later, some of the participants in the case explain what happened behind the scenes and wrestle with the fallout on their lives. — Ethan Alter
True Crime Story: Look Into My Eyes premieres Thursday, June 15 at 10 p.m. on AMC+, SundanceTV and SundanceNow.
STREAM IT: Boldy go back to Strange New Worlds for Season 2 of the fan favorite Star Trek series
Talk about strange: Season 2 of the Star Trek prequel series features the franchise’s first animated-to-live action crossover as Lower Decks main characters Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) go from cartoons to corporeal humans. That’s just another example of how Strange New Worlds is consistently delighting longtime Trekkers with deft episodic storytelling, plenty of Easter eggs and the same bold spirit of adventure that has steered the best Trek starships, from Kirk’s Enterprise to Burnham’s Discovery. Climb aboard and get ready to… engage. — E.A.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premieres Thursday, June 15 on Paramount+.
HEAR IT: John Mellencamp ascends on ambitious 25th album
Orpheus Descending, by the artist formerly known as Johnny Cougar, is one of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame-inducted singer-songwriter’s most passionate and fiery records yet. Always one to crusade for social justice, on his 25th album Mellencamp tackles issues like gun violence (“Hey God”), the homeless crisis (“The Eyes of Portland”) and political corruption (“The Land of the So-Called Free”). R-O-C-K in the U-S-A, indeed. — Lyndsey Parker
Orpheus Descending by John Mellencamp is available Friday, June 16 to download/stream on Apple Music.
WATCH IT: Rock out with John Early’s Now More Than Ever
The hilarious Search Party alum’s first HBO comedy special combines his dry, witty jokes with musical performances, including covers of Britney Spears and Neil Young. It’s his take on a ’70s rockumentary — Early’s own version of Spinal Tap — and it was filmed at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, N.Y., where his faux band, the Lemon Squares, was by his side. — R.S.
John Early: Now More Than Ever premieres Saturday, June 17 at 10 p.m. on HBO.
WATCH IT: Shout Factory’s Shaw Brothers box set is a must have for martial arts fans
While Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan may have been the face of Hong Kong cinema in the ’70s and ’80s, the Shaw Brothers were the powers behind the territory’s explosion of martial arts favorites. Starting in the late ’60s, the producing duo oversaw a cinematic renaissance in Hong Kong, using classic Chinese wuxia tales as a jumping-off point for then-modern action movie tricks and techniques. The first slew of Shaw hits are collected on Shout Factory’s Shaw Brothers Classics Vol. 1 Blu-ray box set — a treasure trove of eleven movies made between 1967 through 1969, including The Thundering Sword, The Invincible Fist and Dragon Swamp. Each movie boasts a sparkling high-def transfer along with a wealth of audio commentaries and revealing new interviews. — E.A.
Shaw Brothers Classics Vol. 1 Blu-ray box set is available Tuesday, June 13 on Amazon and Shout Factory’s official site.
HEAR IT: Queens of the Stone Age reign over their Roman rock empire
Josh Homme has been in the news for personal reasons connected to his acrimonious divorce and custody battle with the Distillers’s Brody Dalle, but now he and his band of desert rockers are roaring back after the six-year recording hiatus with their eighth studio album, In Times New Roman… QOTSA’s press release describes the record as “raw, at times brutal, and not recommended for the faint of heart” but also “the most beautiful and definitely the most rewarding album in their epic discography” — as showcased in the return-to-form lead single, “Emotion Sickness.” Later this year, QOTSA will head out on their “The End Is Nero” tour with fellow riotous rockers Viagra Boys and Savages’s Jehnny Beth. — L.P.
In Times New Roman… by Queens of the Stone Age is available Friday, June 16 to download/stream on Apple Music.
HEAR IT: Yusuf/Cat Stevens is still the king
Legendary singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, aka Yusuf, returns with his first studio album in almost a decade, King of a Land. The collection of 12 originals, issued on the George Harrison-founded label Dark Horse Records, reunites Yusuf with Paul Samwell-Smith, who produced Stevens’s classic ’70s LPs Tea for the Tillerman, Teaser and the Firecat and Catch Bull at Four. — L.P.
King of a Land by Yusuf/Cat Stevens is available Friday, June 16 to download/stream on Apple Music.
