The It List: Hulu doc peeks behind the Victoria's Secret corporate curtain, Lizzo drops new album 'Special,' Dakota Johnson plays Jane Austen heroine in 'Persuasion' and all the best in pop culture the week of July 11, 2022
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 July 11-17, including the best deals we could find for each. (Yahoo Entertainment may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page.)
STREAM IT: New Victoria's Secret documentary exposes the lingerie brand's dark side
Hulu's three-part docuseries investigates the troubling and proactive story of Victoria's Secret and its longtime CEO, billionaire Les Wexner. Directed by Matt Tyrnauer, the exposé promises the "untold story" of what went on behind closed doors. "The underworld of fashion, the billionaire class, and Jeffrey Epstein are all revealed to be inextricably intertwined with the fall of this legendary brand," a press release teases. The docuseries has been kept hush-hush, but features interviews with former Victoria's Secret executives. "Turning a blind eye is a very key phrase with this series," Tyrnauer told New York Magazine. — Taryn Ryder
Victoria's Secret: Angels and Demons premieres Thursday, July 14 on Hulu.
WATCH IT: See Ruby Rose get her E-sports team into fighting shape in 1Up
Straight outta the Batcave, former Batwoman star Ruby Rose is back in training mode in the new Prime Video comedy 1Up. Imagine Pitch Perfect by way of The Wizard and you've got the basic set-up for this ribald send-up of gaming culture, which follows an all-female collegiate E-sports team called the 8-Bits as they take on their all-male rivals, the Betas. Julia Yorks's screenplay adds plenty of retro and contemporary video game jokes to the zero-to-hero narratives, and director Kyle Newman — who previously helmed the 2009 Star Wars satire, Fanboys — drops in visual shout-outs to the Mario Bros. and Warcraft, among other titles. This exclusive clip features Rose's gaming coach putting the 8-Bits through their paces, and refusing to accept second best as first place. Now that's playing with power. — Ethan Alter
1Up premieres Friday, July 15 on Prime Video from Lionsgate and BuzzFeed Studios
WATCH IT: Season 2 of Star Trek: Lower Decks beams onto Blu-ray and DVD
Star Trek's popular animated comedy kept on trekkin' in its sophomore season on Paramount+, regularly re-affirming its status as one of the delights of the streaming era Trek-aissance. No wonder the show was re-upped for two more seasons of deep space cartoon hijinks. Season 2's 10 episodes are now arriving on a two-disc Blu-ray and DVD set that also includes audio commentaries on select installments, animatics and behind the scenes interviews with the cast and crew. This exclusive clip from one of the featurettes lets Jack Quaid — the star of another blockbuster streaming series, The Boys — reveal his secret to seeing double on one memorable episode. — E.A.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2 arrives Tuesday, July 12 on Blu-ray and DVD at most major retailers, including Amazon.
HEAR IT: Lizzo returns, just in time
Multihyphenate diva Lizzo has hardly kept a low profile since her breakthrough, Cuz I Love You, which earned her seven Grammy nominations and catapulted her to superstar status. But incredibly, more than three years have passed since that album’s release. Buoyed by the aptly titled disco-throwback single “About Damn Time,” Lizzo’s comeback LP, Special, now seems like a hot contender for 2022’s top summer soundtrack. This fall, she’ll kick off her Special tour, donating $500,000 from ticket sales to Planned Parenthood, with Live Nation matching that amount for a total of $1 million. — Lyndsey Parker
Special by Lizzo is available Friday, July 15 to download/stream on Apple Music.
WATCH IT: New relationship series follows 1 woman, who dates 5 men all at the same time, over the course of a week
This fascinating new dating show on Lifetime is coming in hot and heavy, featuring a different eligible woman each week who invites five bachelors to move into her home and tag along with her as she goes to work, hangs with friends and even eats with her parents. The lucky lady will eliminate guys one at a time throughout the week before, hopefully, finding love. "I always wanted a first date with so many men," one single woman exclaims in the show's trailer. Here's to finding the one (out of five)!
Five Guys a Week premieres Wednesday, July 13 on Lifetime.
STREAM IT: Brace your kids for the return of Addison and Zed in Zombies 3
Sure, as fully grown adults who like fully grown adult kinds of entertainment, we’re not personally the least bit interested in Zombies 3, the third adventure of star-crossed (PG) lovers Addison (the human cheerleader played by Meg Donnelly) and Zed (the green-haired zombie football player played by Milo Manheim) following the riotously popular Zombies (2018) and Zombies 2 (2020). But as parents to kids under 10 who’ve been asking when the next Zombies movie is coming out ever since Feb. 14, 2020? Oh, we’re about to fire up Disney+ and let these kids find their bliss. — K.P.
Zombies 3 premieres Friday, July 15 on Disney+.
HEAR IT: J-Hope brings new hope to the BTS Army
Last month, K-pop septet BTS shattered their Army’s hearts by announcing they were going on hiatus. But after BTS, who just released the best-of compilation Proof, assured fans that they are not breaking up, the individual band members wasted no time in focusing on their solo projects. (The good news is, BTS fans might be getting seven times the content soon!) J-Hope is the first BTS member to release a full-length solo album during this interim, Jack in the Box, and judging from the record’s lead single, it’ll boast a very different sound from crossover pop hits like “Boy With Luv” and “Butter.” J-Hope’s “More” is a dark, grungy, '90s rap-rock affair, evoking Post Malone, Nirvana, Cypress Hill and even Nine Inch Nails in parts; it’ll no doubt go over brilliantly when he plays Lollapalooza on July 31, becoming the first South Korean artist to headline a major U.S. music festival. — L.P.
Jack in the Box by J-Hope is available Friday, July 15 to download/stream on Apple Music.
STREAM IT: Bill Burr tackles third rail topics like cancel culture and abortion in his new Netflix special
Leave it to Bill Burr to try to get himself canceled. The outspoken comic — who has recently defended controversial figures like Johnny Depp and his Mandalorian co-star Gina Carano — freely speaks his mind in his latest Netflix special, Live at Red Rocks, filmed at Colorado's famed outdoor amphitheater last year. Expanding on comments he previously made on his divisive 2020 Saturday Night Live hosting gig, Burr wastes little time calling out cancel culture, ridiculing attempts to cancel long-dead celebrities like John Wayne. He also renews his attacks on other perceived hypocrisies on both sides of the aisle, whether it's feminists who he claims watch The Kardashians instead of WNBA games or anti-maskers who refuse to take pandemic precautions and then show up at emergency rooms demanding to be saved. Burr ends his set by outlining his nuanced take on abortion — a subject that couldn't be more timely even though the special was filmed in 2021. — E.A.
Bill Burr: Live at Red Rocks premieres Tuesday, July 12 on Netflix.
STREAM IT: Dakota Johnson channels Jane Austen in a new adaptation of Persuasion
Austenites, rejoice! The author's final novel gets a fresh adaptation with the internet's favorite actress Dakota Johnson front and center. The Lost Daughter star plays Persuasion's heroine, Anne Elliot, who was persuaded to break off her engagement to prospect-challenged Frederick Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis) years earlier and has regretted it ever since. Now, the two reconnect after a seven-year break and sparks inevitably fly once more. The feature filmmaking debut of celebrated theater director Carrie Cracknell, Persuasion cleverly breaks the fourth wall with Johnson frequently addressing the camera as the drama — and comedy — unfolds. Look for Crazy Rich Asians star Henry Golding in a fun turn as another suitor who might spoil Anne and Frederick's happily every after. — E.A.
Persuasion premieres Friday, July 15 on Netflix.
HEAR IT: Interpol are true believers
The Other Side of Make-Believe, the seventh studio album from NYC aughts indie-rockers Interpol, was written remotely entirely during the COVID-19 pandemic — a first for the band. But by 2021, when Paul Banks, Daniel Kessler and Sam Fogarino were able to physically reunite in the Catskills and later London to record the album with super-producers Alan Moulder and Flood, the magic was still there. In fact, the whimsically titled record just might be the typically moody post-punk group’s most upbeat yet: Banks recently told Rolling Stone that Make-Believe’s “very relaxed” and “intimate” tracks have Pet Sounds and Red Hot Chili Peppers influences and “really unabashedly positive sentiments.” — L.P.
The Other Side of Make-Believe by Interpol is available Friday, July 15 to download/stream on Apple Music.
PLAY IT: Turn your toy collection Upside Down with Playmates's new TMNT meets Stranger Things line
Cowabunga dudes! The Hawkins Hellfire Club meets New York's own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the Stranger Things Upside Down Remix collection from Playmates. Hitting shelves in October, but available for pre-order now, this line of toys pairs each of the four Turtles with a Stranger Things fan favorite. Like the song goes, Leonardo and Eleven lead; Donatello and Lucas do machines; Raphael and Hopper are cool, but crude; and Michelangelo and Dustin are serious party dudes. And you'd better believe that when the evil Shredder and Vecna attack, these hard-shell heroes don't cut 'em no slack. — E.A.
The Stranger Things Upside Down Remix collection releases in October and is available for pre-order now at Target.
HEAR IT: Johnny Depp acts out with Jeff Beck
Johnny Depp has been in the news for obvious unpleasant reasons lately, but now he’s attempting to deflect that negative attention (or just release some post-trial tension) by rocking out with his pal, guitar legend Jeff Beck. The actor — who got his start in music and has played in Rock City Angels and the supergroups P and Hollywood Vampires – joins Beck on 18, stating in a press release: “It’s an extraordinary honor to play and write music with Jeff, one of the true greats and someone I am now privileged enough to call my brother.” The surprising 13-track collaborative project comprises several originals, as well as covers like the Velvet Underground’s “Venus In Furs,” the Everly Brothers’s “Let It Be Me,” Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and the Beach Boys’s “Caroline, No” and “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder).” — L.P.
18 by Jeff Beck & Johnny Depp is available Friday, July 15 to download/stream on Apple Music.
— Video produced by Kyle Moss and edited by John Santo
