The Brainerd Dispatch - Today's Entertainment Magazine
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Brainerd Dispatch • April 4 - 10, 2021 •19 By Dana Simpson TV Media WHAT'S NEW ON PARAMOUNT+ "No Activity" Season 4 Change things up from the norm with a new season of the Funny or Die series "No Activity," coming to Paramount+ on Thursday, April 8. The Patrick Brammall ("Glitch") and Trent O'Donnell ("New Girl") comedy series, which launched in 2017 as a live action procedural sitcom, is getting the animated treatment for its fourth season. The half-hour series has been following two relatively idle low-level cops, two dispatch workers on the outs with each other, two criminals with little to no insight and two Mexican tunnelers who just met and are working in close quarters together for the first time. Now, Season 4 returns to follow the same charac - ters (but in animated form) several years down the line from where they first began. Special agent Nick Cullen (Brammall) is finally seeing his FBI dreams come true as he breaks a lead on an emerging cult while assigned to a seemingly dull task. Despite their different paths, Cullen is still keeping in contact with his former partner, Det. Judd Tolbeck (Tim Meadows, "Mean Girls," 2004), who has been as - signed a brand new partner on the force. Amy Sedaris ("BoJack Horseman"), Bob Odenkirk ("Bet- ter Call Saul"), Sunita Mani ("Evil Eye," 2020), Joe Keery ("Stranger Things") and Jason Mantzoukas ("The Dictator," 2012) will all be returning to lend their voices and likenesses to the screen, while the extensive Season 4 special guest list includes Kevin Bacon ("City on a Hill"), Elle Fanning ("The Neon Demon," 2016), Will Forte ("The Last Man on Earth"), June Squibb ("Good Girls") and Samara Weav- ing ("Ready or Not," 2019) among others. With the first three seasons already available to binge on the streamer, Season 4 will be dropping new episodes each week following the premiere. WHAT'S NEW ON NETFLIX "Snabba Cash" Join Netflix on a mission into Stockholm's seedy underworld with the new series "Snabba Cash," debuting Wednesday, April 7, on the streamer. Based on the bestsell- ing Jens Lapidus Stockholm Noir trilogy novel of the same name (also titled as "Easy Money" in the English translation) and taking place a decade after the events of the 2010 film, "Snabba Cash" follows ambitious entrepreneur and single mother Leya (Evin Ahmad, "The Rain") as her desire for wealth and success leads her further into danger, eventually crossing paths with gangs, troubled youth and all manner of sins deep in the heart of Sweden's capital city. Over the course of six high-intensity episodes, Season 1 explores the im- plications that family ties, maternal drive, business partnerships and friendships may have on one's abil- ity to make so-called "easy money." Directed by Jesper Ganslandt ("Falkenberg Farewell," 2006) with Nicklas Wikström Nicastro ("A Man Called Ove," 2015) producing for SF Studios, "Snabba Cash'' also stars Alexander Abdallah ("Love Me"), Dada Fungula Bozela ("Torped- erna"), Peter Eggers ("Operation Ragnarok," 2018) and new actors Ayaan Ahmed, Ali Alarik and Len- nox Söderström. "Night in Paradise" (2021) Indulge in a night of foreign cinema when Netflix launches the highly anticipated new thriller "Night in Paradise" on Friday, April 9. The only Korean film to get an out-of- competition official selection at the Venice Film Festival in September 2020, "Night in Paradise" tells the story of a man targeted by some of the most powerful gangs in South Korea and his relationship to a woman who is teetering on the edge between life and death. Di- rected by acclaimed filmmaker Park Hoon-jung ("The Witch: Part 1 - The Subversion," 2018), the Korean noir (or, K-noir) piece is sending shock waves around the world for its "good plotting, amusing characters and exciting action scenes and bloodshed" (per the Hollywood Reporter), as well as its slow-burn beginning that rockets into inten- sity at a moment's notice. Starring Um Tae-goo ("I Saw the Devil," 2010), Jeon Yeo-been ("Be Melo- dramatic"), Cha Seoung-won ("The Greatest Love," 2011), "Night in Paradise" explores the nuanced relationship between organized crime and family bonds. "Thunder Force" (2021) A new kind of superhero duo is coming to Netflix on Friday, April 9, and it seems to all be purely by accident. "Thunder Force" is a comedy about two former best friends who reconnect in their 40s. One, Emily (Octavia Spencer, "The Help," 2011), is a well-to-do entrepreneur and geneticist who has been working on a process to manipulate DNA in such a way that any average person could be given superpowers. The other, Lydia (Melissa McCarthy, "Bridesmaids," 2011), is an adult who, well, hasn't quite grown up yet. When Lydia accidentally injects herself with Emily's superhero serum, the two women devise a plan to use their newfound powers to fight crime in their hometown of Chicago. Unfor- tunately, with the rise of superhe- roes comes the rise of supervillains, and now the two women, who call themselves "Thunder Force," must harness their new lifestyle quickly to defeat The Crab (Jason Bate- man, "Ozark"), The King (Bobby Cannavale, "Ant-Man," 2015) and any other villains who may cross their path along the way. Written and directed by filmmaker/actor/ McCarthy's husband Ben Falcone ("Tammy," 2014), "Thunder Force" is a hilarious hybrid of buddy com- edy, superhero action flick and a testament to the power of women (even if that power is sometimes accidentally injected). Melissa Ponzio ("Chicago Fire"), Melissa Leo ("The Fighter," 2010) and Pom Klementieff ("Avengers: Infinity War," 2018) also star. "The Wedding Coach" Say "I Do" to an uplifting new reality series coming to Netflix on Wednesday, April 7. "The Wedding Coach" chronicles actor/comedian/ writer Jamie Lee ("Crashing") as she channels her own former wedding-planning stress to help couples who are now preparing for their big day. Insistent that the "perfect wedding" is a complete fallacy, Lee offers her planning know-how, organizational efforts, people skills and kind heart to six couples who are all struggling with average (and some more than aver- age) stresses about their big day. From a bride-to-be who hasn't yet told her mother she is pregnant to a same-sex couple that claims Lee saved more than just their wedding day, it is clear that self-proclaimed "fairy godmother" Lee's "Wedding Coach" help is bringing hope, joy and love to many people by way of this new unscripted series. WHAT'S NEW ON HULU "GLAAD Media Awards" Tune into Hulu on Thursday, April 8, to catch all the action and en- tertainment of the 32nd annual Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Awards, airing on the platform and on YouTube. Every year, the GLAAD Awards celebrate the best, fairest, most accurate and most inclusive representations of the LGBTQ+ community in the media. From film and television to music, video games, comic books and print and multimedia journalism across both English- and Spanish-language platforms, a few of this year's many contenders in- clude Netflix's "The Prom" (2020), HBO's "Welcome to Chechnya," Canadian comedy series "Schitt's Creek," BBC America's "Killing Eve," Amazon's "Uncle Frank" (2020), HBO Max's kids series "The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo" and the DreamWorks/Netflix co-production "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power" in the English- language television categories. Honorable mentions across other categories include nominations for Lady Gaga's "Chromatica" (Music Artist), "Assassin's Creed Valhalla" (Video Game), "Juliet Takes a Breath" by Gabby Rivera, Celia Moscote, James Fenner, DC Hopkins (Comic Book), NBC News Now's "Pride and Protest: Being Black and Queer in America in 2020" (TV Journalism - Long Form), People's "The AIDS Quilt Marches Home" by Jason Sheeler (Print Article), Netflix's "Alguien tiene que morir" (Spanish-Language Scripted Televi- sion Series), and Homosensual's "Mujeres LGBT+ en México: Ari Vera" (Spanish-Language Online Journalism - Video or Multimedia), to name a few. Niecy Nash ("The Masked Singer") hosts. WHAT'S NEW ON PRIME "Them" Let the chills run up your spine as Amazon's newest horror series, "Them," joins the platform's lineup on Friday, April 9. Created by bud- ding writer/producer Little Marvin ("The Time Is Now," 2006), this se- ries' skin-crawling, 10-episode first season follows the Emorys, a Black family from North Carolina who move to Covenant, an affluent all- white neighborhood in 1950s Los Angeles during a period known as The Great Migration. Once settled into their new home and West Coast lifestyle, the Emorys quickly become very unsettled due to dark, malevolent forces that haunt, terrorize and threaten to destroy them altogether. Starring Deborah Ayorinde ("Harriet," 2019), Ashley Thomas ("The Night Of"), Shahadi Wright Joseph ("Us," 2019) and Melody Hurd ("Trick," 2019) as the Emory family, Alison Pill ("Midnight in Paris," 2011), Ryan Kwanten ("True Blood"), Abbie Cobb ("Dwight in Shining Armor") and Christopher Heyerdahl ("Van Hels- ing") also bring their talents to the screen. Series music is composed by "The Witch's" (2015) Mark Korven. A scene from "No Activity" Alexander Abdallah as seen in "Snabba Cash" Melissa McCarthy in "Thunder Force"