The It List: 'Fresh Off the Boat' ends with an hour-long series finale, BTS drops 'Map of the Soul: 7,' 'When Calls the Heart' returns once again without Lori Loughlin and the best in pop culture the week of Feb. 17, 2020

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 Feb. 17-23, including the best deals we could find for each. (Yahoo Entertainment may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page.)

WATCH IT: After six seasons, Fresh Off the Boat docks at cancellation station

Launched in 2015, the ABC comedy Fresh Off the Boat was the first network sitcom since Margaret Cho’s ill-fated 1994 series All-American Girl to feature a predominantly Asian-American cast. Unlike its predecessor, the show — loosely based on the life of famed chef Eddie Huang — was a critical and commercial success from its maiden voyage up until the final two installments, which air back-to-back on Feb. 21. The actual series finale is directed by none other than Fresh’s leading man, Randall Park, who springboarded into feature films like The Interview, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Always Be My Maybe based on the success of the show. His onscreen wife, Constance Wu, also found her way into multiplexes via such box office hits as Crazy Rich Asians and Hustlers, and that apparently led to some behind the scenes tension. In May 2019, the actress had a notorious “Twitter fiasco” where she took aim at Fresh Off the Boat’s sixth season renewal, writing that she was “so upset right now.” While Wu apologized for the outburst — explaining that she was upset about missing out on another project due to the renewal — rumors about her on-set behavior began to circulate. ABC downplayed any drama at the annual TCA Press Tour in August, with network president, Karey Burkey, saying: “[Constance] was apologetic for what she said, and I have heard nothing about anything other than enthusiasm for everybody to get back to work.” For her part, Wu made a point of expressing enthusiasm about her time on the show in a recent interview on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. “The cast and crew there, they’re really my family. “They’ve seen me go through six years of change… It really is the most life-changing thing that’s ever happened to me.” — Ethan Alter

The final episodes of Fresh Off the Boat air Friday, Feb. 21 at 8 p.m. on ABC.

HEAR IT: BTS have it all mapped out

The unstoppable K-pop superstars continue their global domination and expand their vision with Map of the Soul: 7. The music video for “Black Swan,” the first single promoting the new album, is an ambitious art film featuring the Slovenian MN Dance Company. The group’s Map of the Soul Tour kicks off in April. — Lyndsey Parker

Download on iTunes; buy on CD at Amazon.

BUY IT: Enter another dimension with Jordan Peele’s version of The Twilight Zone, now on Blu-ray and DVD

Consider, if you will, purchasing Jordan Peele’s revival of Rod Serling’s classic sci-fi series, newly available on Blu-ray and DVD on Feb. 18 after a successful run on CBS All Access last spring. The Get Out auteur executive produces and hosts the anthology series, which features such big-name actors as Kumail Nanjiani, John Cho and Ginnifer Goodwin in episodes that aim to speak to current social and political issues filtered through a genre lens. Take the first installment, “Rewind,” in which Sanaa Lathan plays a mother who uses a time-travel device in a desperate attempt to save her son from being repeatedly killed by a racist police officer. In an exclusive clip from one of the featurettes included on the Blu-ray, executive producer, Win Rosenfeld, remembers how Lathan set the tone for the actors who followed. “For her to really shoulder being our first Twilight Zone protagonist in decades was remarkable,” Rosenfeld says. (Watch the clip above.) “You talk about some of the great performances in Twilight Zone history, it’s because those protagonists were able to pack so much into every moment.” A lot of extras are packed onto the Blu-ray as well: In addition to both black-and-white and color versions of all 10 episodes, the two-disc set comes with a two-part documentary, music videos and a salute to Serling.

Buy The Twilight Zone on Blu-ray and DVD on Amazon and Target.

WATCH IT: Blast off to the far, far away galaxy with the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Disney+

Ended, The Clone Wars has. Six years after a truncated sixth season brought Dave Filoni’s much-loved animated Star Wars series to a premature end, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and, best of all, Ahsoka Tank are back on for a 12-episode farewell run on Disney+. These last episodes will presumably fill in the gaps between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, and perhaps provide some hint about where fan-favorite Ahsoka (voiced by Ashley Eckstein) might be during the rest of the Skywalker Saga. After all, the character did make a vocal cameo alongside the other Jedi Masters in The Rise of Skywalker, which suggests there are still more stories left to tell about her exploits. And Eckstein, for one, would love to tell them. “I love Leia and Padme, but Ahsoka was the first lead character that put a lightsaber in girl’s hands,” the actress told Yahoo Entertainment in 2018. “I’m honored to be just a member of her team, and it’s something that I do not take lightly and I will continue to be a reflection of her.” — E.A.

The final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars premieres Friday, Feb. 21 on Disney+.

WATCH IT: When Calls the Heart returns to tug at your heartstrings

A year after cutting ties with actress Lori Loughlin amid the college admissions scandal, the beloved Hallmark show continues. When the news first broke, the frontier drama quickly took a two-month break, as Loughlin’s character, Abigail Stanton, was removed from unaired episodes. Some scenes were even reshot with other actors. The character went away on a trip to tend to a sick relative. Now it’s been eight months since the show has aired regularly, save for a Christmas special, and the focus is back on the relationships and romance for which the show is known. Most importantly, should Elizabeth (Erin Krakow) choose Lucas Bouchard or Nathan Grant? — Raechal Shewfelt

The new season of When Calls the Heart premieres Sunday, Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. on Hallmark Channel. The spinoff When Hope Calls premieres immediately afterward.

HEAR IT: The Prince of Darkness reclaims his throne

Ozzy Osbourne, battling Parkinson’s but galvanized by a recent chart-busting collaboration with Post Malone, has recorded his first solo album in a decade, Ordinary Man, and it’s already being heralded as one of his best. The majority of the comeback effort was co-written by super-producer Andrew Watt, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’s Chad Smith and Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan; special guests include Elton John, Slash and Post. Read our interview with Smith about the album here. — L.P.

Download on iTunes; buy on CD/vinyl at Amazon.

WATCH IT: A new Emma update is keeping Austen weird

Some 24 years after Gwyneth Paltrow trotted out a pretty convincing British accent to play her, Jane Austen’s well-meaning but, ahem, clueless heroine Emma — who was also the template for Alicia Silverstone’s delightful Cher Horowitz — is having another moment in the sun. Photographer Autumn de Wilde’s new adaptation of Austen’s 1815 novel sees Split’s Anya Taylor-Joy in the title role, playing the sweet but spoiled matchmaker who’ll stop at nothing to pair off her friends — and possibly even herself. Bill Nighy and Lovesick star Johnny Flynn round out the period rom-com’s cast. — Erin Donnelly

Emma opens in theaters on Friday, Feb. 21; visit Fandango for showtime and ticket information.

WATCH IT: No lie: Disney’s Pinocchio turns 80

Walt Disney’s animated retelling of Pinocchio — complete with Jiminy Cricket and the braying brats of Pleasure Island — was released in the U.S. on Feb. 23, 1940. But while the cartoon classic is an impressive 80 years old, the Italian story it’s based on is considerably more mature — 139 years to be exact. Novelist Carlo Collodi first released his tale of a marionette puppet who longed to be a real boy as a series of magazine stories called The Story of a Puppet in 1881; two years later it was published as a book, The Adventures of Pinocchio. That wooden wonder has been pulling our (heart)strings ever since. — E.D.

Pinocchio is available to stream on Disney+.

BUY IT: Get your Marvel fix with Funko’s bi-monthly Marvel Collector Corps subscriber boxes

Between comic books, movies, television shows and video games, the Marvel Universe is a big place, and every two months Funko tries to capture it in one handy box courtesy of the Marvel Collector Corps. Head over to Amazon to subscribe to these bi-monthly deliveries, which are organized around characters like Captain Marvel or the X-Men, or bigger themes like Marvel’s 80th Anniversary. Every box comes with one exclusive Pop collectible, plus 3 to 6 additional items ranging from T-shirts and mugs to patches and pint glasses. — E.A.

Sign up for Funko’s bi-monthly Marvel Collector Corps box on Amazon.

WATCH IT: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood will brighten your week

See Tom Hanks’s Oscar-nominated performance as the late Mr. Rogers in this retelling of the real-life friendship between Rogers and a journalist assigned to profile him, Lloyd Vogel. The movie shows how a skeptical Vogel (played by Matthew Rhys) slowly bonded with the children’s TV host, who was famously kind, compassionate and genuine. As you can probably guess, Rogers ends up being much more than an interview subject for Vogel; he ends up teaching him something about life and love, too. — R.S.

Buy A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood on 4K, DVD, Blu-ray and digital on Amazon.

HEAR IT: Return to the scene of the Grimes

Shapeshifting art-popper Claire Boucher, a.k.a. Grimes, is back with her first album in five years, Miss Anthropocene. This ambitious and uncategorizable as ever fifth full-length — and her final record for the 4AD label — is a concept album about an anthropomorphic goddess of climate change, inspired by Roman mythology and villainy. — L.P.

Download on iTunes; buy on CD/vinyl at Amazon.

WATCH IT: Jojo Rabbit celebrates its Oscar win with home entertainment release

"Nothing makes sense anymore," Jojo Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis) tells his best buddy Yorki (Archie Yates) as the Third Reich's rule over Germany starts to crumble toward the end of Jojo Rabbit. "Yeah, I know, definitely not a good time to be a Nazi," Yorki retorts. It's hilariously wry exchanges like this one that won writer-director Taika Waititi the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay earlier this month. While Christine Leunens's novel it’s based on, Caging Skies, is original and surprisingly inspirational, Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows, Thor: Ragnarok) added his trademark irreverence to this "anti-hate satire" for a perfect concoction of hysterical history. The film celebrates its big Oscar win with a Blu-ray release that includes deleted scenes, outtakes and what's surely a hilarious director's commentary from Waititi. — Kevin Polowy

Buy Jojo Rabbit on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD or digital on Amazon.

WATCH IT: Year of the Rabbit is bloody good fun

How ridiculous would it be to drop a tough, Kojak-like TV cop into Victorian London? Very, we see in this new half-hour comedy that debuted in Britain last June. Americans now have the chance to watch it on IFC, alongside equally weird and funny programs, like Portlandia and the Baroness von Sketch Show. In this one, the cranky Rabbit (played by British veteran actor Matt Berry) is forced to work with two young partners as he investigates crimes such as the murder of a cabaret girl. — R.S.

Year of the Rabbit premieres Wednesday, Feb. 19 at 10:30 p.m. on IFC.

WATCH IT: Sing along with Robbie Robertson and The Band in the new rockumentary, Once Were Brothers

Beat for beat and song for song, you won’t find a better concert movie than Martin Scorsese’s 1978 tubthumper, The Last Waltz, starring The Band in their final public performance. While that film included interview segments in which the celebrated quintet — Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko — discussed going their separate ways, it didn’t provide a full overview of their career. That’s left to Daniel Roher’s new documentary, Once Were Brothers, which tells the Band’s story via a mixture of new interviews and extensive archival material. With Hudson, the only other surviving member, having apparently declined to appear in the film, Robertson gets to frame the narrative and while he’s generous to his collaborators, it does feel as if he’s pointedly leaving out some key details about their shared experiences together. Fortunately, the music still rocks, and the stories behind the creation of classic albums like Music From Big Pink and Stage Fright prove all over again that The Band wasn’t just another ordinary band. — E.A.

Once Were Brothers opens in theaters on Friday, Feb. 21; visit Fandango for showtime and ticket information.

WATCH IT: Chadwick Boseman crosses over into Cop Land with 21 Bridges Blu-ray

Do you miss all those hard-boiled detective thrillers of the early ‘90s? Well you may have missed it last fall, but the dark and twisty 21 Bridges is a perfect throwback to the likes of Deep Cover and The Last Boy Scout. Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman plays a New York detective with a dicey past who gets a shot at redemption when he leads the chase for two cop killers on the loose, shutting down all of the bridges and tunnels out of Manhattan in the process. The Blu-ray release includes deleted scenes and a commentary from director Brian Kirk. — K.P.

Buy 21 Bridges on Blu-ray, DVD or digital on Amazon.

WATCH IT: HBO’s We Are the Dream is ideal Black History Month viewing

The legacy of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. lives on in the new HBO documentary, We Are the Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest. Executive produced by two-time Oscar winner, Mahershala Ali, and directed by Amy Schatz, the hour-long film chronicles the 40th edition of this annual festival, in which Oakland-based students from pre-K through 12th grade perform orations that were written or inspired by King. Following its Feb. 18th premiere on HBO, the film will stream for free on HBO.com throughout the rest of Black History Month. — E.A.
We Are the Dream premieres Feb. 18 on HBO, and will stream for free on HBO.com starting Feb. 19