Hollywood, Upload, the Baker and the Beauty and Zoe’s Extraordinary Playlist

My Top Three This Week 

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers. The saga continues as we all do our part to keep the sanity in this insane world. With that in mind watch Jerry Seinfeld special 23 Hours to Kill - you can thank me later. So many new series are dropping in May and new seasons are starting ( cant wait to dig into Dead to Me) that I feel that along with that is the hope that we can all go to concerts, movies, plays one day and until then I am here for you.

1) Hollywood streaming on Netflix is the perfect What/If fairytale we didn't even know needed. Set in the era of glamorous post war Hollywood , Ryan Murphy introduces us to the notion of what would  have happened if Rock Hudson got to live his truth , a woman ran a studio and a woman of color opened a big film. Murphy has long favored people on the fringe and that is what gives this mini-series its heart. Floating fictional characters along with the very real stories of the famed gas station that served more than gas , the legendary  story of Peg Entwistle who committed suicide by jumping off the Hollywood sign. The all star cast has some Murphy regulars and few new faces - all outstanding performances. The standouts are Dylan McDermott at his best as Ernie West proprietor of said gas station and David Corenswet as Jack Costello . Joe Mantello, Jeremy Pope , Jake Picking, Jim Parsons and national treasure Holland Taylor give thoughtful performances full of longing. But Patti Lupone steals every scene. Just Watch this!!

2 Upload from creative genius Greg Daniels now on  Amazon Prime is a smart, sci -fi dark comedy mystery that will hook you from the very beginning. The premise of the story is that for those who can afford it when they  are nearing end of life they can be uploaded into Lakeview a virtual landscape where their every wish is catered to as they live their best life in a 3-D printed body. Nathan is on the brink between life and death after a self driving car accident and his girlfriend uploads him into Lakeview where she will join him whenever her life is over  thus binding him for afterlife where every convenience is charged to her account. The mystery of his crash,  his business deal that was on the verge of happening and a very absent business partner plus  some memory gaps has a very hilarious sleuth trying to find out what happened. Some great acting from Robbie Amell, Andy Allo and Allegra Edwards.

3) There are several choices I recommend if you are looking for something heart warming, sweet or has great musical dance numbers I have some guilty pleasures for you. I bundled them together so you can just enjoy with no spoilers, no plots just all the feels, The Baker and the Beauty an American version of the Israeli hit with lots of eye candy. Never Have I Ever a sweet sweet story from creator Mindy Kaling and one of my favorite hybrids - Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist the tale of a young woman who sees people's heart songs with full dance numbers and a variety of music styles. This cast is a dream cast. The amazing Jane Levy, Alex Newell( a showcase performance), Peter Gallagher , Mary Steenburgen and Lauren Graham. Skyler Astin and John Clarence Stewart provide some of the best dance/music sequence with the exception of Newell who can do anything as far as I am concerned.