Week In Sloth

\ Jul 14, 2016

3 min read

Thursday 14

“Naked and Afraid: Pop-Up Edition XL” (Discovery 7pm) Do you really want to use the word “pop-up” in conjunction with a show about people wandering around the jungle naked? You do? OK. Guess I’ll assume you’re serious with the “XL” part as well.

Friday 15

“Stranger Things” (Netflix streaming anytime) This nostalgia-heavy, Spielbergian-style 1980s supernatural thriller stars Winona Ryder as a Midwestern mother whose son disappears under very suspicious circumstances. Think E.T., Close Encounters, Starman, Watchers, Firestarter, Goonies, Silver Bullet and Poltergeist all mashed up together.

“Secrets of The Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey” (KOAT-7 7pm) ABC—which is owned by Disney, which owns the Star Wars franchise now—gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the most recent Star Wars sequel.

Saturday 16

“Reelz Reviews: Movies on Demand” (Reelz 8:30am) Movie critic Leonard Maltin teams up with Rotten Tomatoes’ Grae Drake to review movies now available for viewing at home. Because who goes to the theater anymore?

Honeymoon From Hell (Lifetime 6pm) A newly married husband and wife are trapped in a bed and breakfast by a hurricane. Also the bed and breakfast is haunted by a ghost. Who died of a broken heart. I don’t know, this is all sounding suspiciously symbolic to me.

A Perfect Christmas (Hallmark 7pm) Hallmark Channel has built a sizable cottage industry out of creating holiday-based rom-coms. But it’s too big to contain in the months of November and December now. So welcome to Christmas in July.

Reefer Madness (TCM 12am) The classically awful 1936 drug scare film comes to TCM in all its goofy, ganja-fuelled glory.

Sunday 17

“Hell Below” (Smithsonian 7pm) Smithsonian Channel profiles the greatest and deadliest submarine patrols of World War II.

“Original Sin: Sex” (National Geographic 7pm) In this six-part series, NG looks at how the once-taboo subject is increasingly permeating contemporary culture via the internet, advertising, education and the media (like, for example, the National Geographic Channel).

“Vice Principals” (HBO 8:30pm) From the team behind “Eastbound & Down” comes this dark and nasty sitcom about a couple of administrators fighting for control of a suburban high school. Danny McBride ( “Eastbound & Down”) and Walton Goggins (“Justified”) star.

Monday 18

Open Your Eyes (HBO 5:30pm) In this eye-opening documentary, an elderly couple suffering from cataracts and living in the mountains of Nepal undertake an arduous three-day journey to have their sight restored.

“Your Voice Your Vote: The 2016 Republican Convention” (KOAT-7 8pm) With any luck, this will be a Titanic-sized disaster. Grab the popcorn and enjoy.

Tuesday 19

“Shooter” (USA 8pm) The 2007 Mark Wahlberg film of the same name (based on Stephen Hunter’s novel Point of Impact) gets a spin-off series. In it, a retired military marksman is lured back into action in order to save the president of the United States.