Rock out at The Sims virtual music festival

Video game The Sims will allow players to attend a virtual music festival within the game. But this will be unlike any music festival you've ever attended. First of all, you'll be attending from at home, which means the toilet situation is a billion times better. Beyond that though - some of the songs will be performed in the fictional Sims language of Simlish.

It’ll be headlined by pop star Bebe Rexha, who will sing her single “Sabotage” in Simlish. Glass Animals and Joy Oladokun will serve as the opening acts, though it sounds like they will be performing in boring old English.

Mare of Easttown fans - be cool, ok

The production of HBO's Mare of Easttown did a whole lot of location filming and now locals of Wallingford are annoyed that the show has driven out disrespectful fans.

One homeowner, who asked local ABC 6 affiliate not to share her name or address, told the news outlet, "We've had a few instances where people have come on to our property - one late at night to look in our front window. Supposedly, I can only guess to see if it's the same as where they filmed the show."

She mentioned asking one woman, in particular, to stop taking photos as her daughter was out playing in the front yard, and this stranger apparently cursed at her.

A return for The Good Fight

Returning for it's fifth season, The Good Fight does something delightfully odd in it's first episode back - it completely dumps the format of the show and is instead a series of (new) "Previously on..." clips. It allows the show to recap the lives of the characters past year - we get to see the characters experience the final year of the Trump presidency (leading up to the Capitol Building riot), but we also see how they deal with COVID (it hits one character harder than the rest), and also how the show wrote out two of the series regulars.

Steve Greene at Indiewire says that the show continues to be as strong as it has been. And despite the change in US politics, some truths remain the same:

While the people driving the erstwhile Reddick, Boseman, & Lockhart were usually sympathetic, “The Good Fight” has always wisely stopped short of painting the people in charge as righteous crusaders. This show has a view of the legal world where — perhaps justifiably — the line between justice and a cash grab is just as easy to cross by accident as it is to do by choice.

There's also a good interview with series creators Robert & Michelle King in Variety:

The first conversation we had in the writers’ room is, “OK, where do we start?” Do you cover this year — this insane year — 2020? Or do you start up in what would be present day when we start releasing the episodes? And the feeling in the room was, “We’re going to want to know what the pandemic was like for Diane and for Adrian or Liz.” And I think it was Robert that came up with, “Well, how about an entire episode that’s ‘previously on…’?” We just spent a whole episode finding out what 2020 looked like for all these people we love. And then we can shoot forward.

TeeVee Snacks

Terrible sitcom The Upshaws has been given a second 16-episode season on Netflix. Read: Deadline
AMC are developing an Interview With The Vampire series. Read: TV Insider
Local Sydney film critic and my Screen Watching podcast co-host Simon Foster is enjoying his birthday today. Happy birthday, mister.
If you love variety shows, check out the NYT deep dive into The Ed Sullivan Show. Read: NYT
Julie Eckersley is the new head of scripted over at SBS. Read: Mediaweek
Vincent Cassel & Eva Green will star in Liaison - a new French-English thriller for Apple TV+. Read: Deadline

Trailer Park

Movie The Harder They Fall will debut on Netflix later this year.

When outlaw Nat Love (Jonathan Majors) discovers that his enemy Rufus Buck (Idris Elba) is being released from prison he rounds up his gang to track Rufus down and seek revenge. Those riding with him in this assured, righteously new school Western include his former love Stagecoach Mary (Zazie Beetz), his right and left hand men — hot-tempered Bill Pickett (Edi Gathegi) and fast drawing Jim Beckwourth (R.J. Cyler)—and a surprising adversary-turned-ally. Rufus Buck has his own fearsome crew, including “Treacherous” Trudy Smith (Regina King) and Cherokee Bill (LaKeith Stanfield), and they are not a group that knows how to lose.

Lock up your picnic baskets, Jellystone debuts July 29 on HBO Max.

Set in the charming town of the same name, Jellystone! follows an ensemble of Hanna-Barbera characters as they live, work, play, and (as is often the case), destroy the town in some silly way together. Huckleberry Hound proudly serves as the town's mayor; Cindy, Boo Boo and Yogi are the town's medical staff; Jabberjaw works at Magilla's clothing store where they supply all the bow ties and hats to the town's citizens; and every character has a specific role in the community.

Gone For Good debuts August 13 on Netflix.

Guillaume Lucchesi had drawn a line under the terrible tragedy which saw the two people he loved the most die: Sonia, his first love, and Fred, his brother. Ten years later, Judith, his new lover, suddenly disappears. To find her, Guillaume will have to face all the truths hidden by his family and friends, as well as the ones he'd decided to ignore. For better, but mostly for worse.

Feature film CODA debuts August 13 on Apple TV+

Gifted with a voice that her parents can’t hear, seventeen-year-old Ruby (Emilia Jones), is the sole hearing member of a deaf family—a CODA, Child of Deaf Adults. Her life revolves around acting as interpreter for her parents (Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur) and working on the family’s struggling fishing boat every day before school with her father and older brother (Daniel Durant).

The One and Only Dick Gregory debuts on Showtime July 4.

The documentary feature unpacks the career of Dick Gregory, the activist, pop-culture icon and thought leader who changed the lives of millions across the world through constant disruption and awareness.

Movie You Are My Spring debuts on Netflix July 5.