What We’re Watching This Week: NBA Trades, Stephen Colbert, and ‘Marco Polo’

We’ll probably work our way around to the annual, drunken ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ screening.

Monday


It’s the most wonderful time of the NBA year: Trade time. Beat writers across the country will be cursing out their spellcheck as Amar’e Stoudemire looks for more than the Knicks can offer (failure, a subpar facility). Lance Stephenson looks like he might also make a move. Apparently teams are interested in a guy who shoot less than 16 percent from outside the arc. That’s a Laker stat right there.

Speaking of trades and trade, Marco Polo on Netflix is the story (more or less) of the Italian merchant and explorer as told through the lens of a daytime soap. It’s definitely miss-able, but Benedict Wong’s performance as Kublai Khan is worth checking out even if you don’t plan to binge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWtv5Ht4YZE

Tuesday


HBO’s new documentary about world champion boxer Johnny Tapia, who spent his career struggle with drugs and a tragic past, seems worth our attention. The same could be said for Charli XCX, who will release an album and continue to do that thing she does, popping up in various unexpected places. The new singles are kind of fun and she’s a beautiful woman. We’re for it.

Still, Charli is no Nicki Minaj when it comes to music videos. Minaj is the queen.

Wednesday


Another year, another Hobbit movie. It’s impossible to tell if Peter Jackson is milking the Tolkien estate for all it’s worth or if he’s just a fanboy of the highest order. Anyway, this one looks just as epic as the ones that came before. And we feel pretty justified illegally streaming it. Not that we’re going to do that, but just saying that we probably wouldn’t apologize if we did. It’s enough already.

It will also be curious to see the prices fetched at the Marussia Formula 1 Auction. The financially struggling team is now being sold for scrap. Your pit crew need some new machinery? Head to Banbury, England, for some sweet deals.

Thursday


Hypothetical Spoiler Alert: Stephen Colbert will finally break character on the last episode of The Colbert Report. He will come out in favor of Obamacare, trash Austrian economics, then remove his face to reveal that he’s been Howard Dean all along.

And you know what’s better than watching Blake Bortles and his Jaguars struggle through a game against the godawful Titans? Watching his ex-girlfriend, Lindsey Duke, do anything. Follow her. Lindsey Wins.

https://www.instagram.com/p/bKMtkmx5_G

A photo posted by Blake Bortles (@bbortles5) on

Jun 6, 2013 at 3:18pm PDT

Friday


John C. Reilly’s “A Very Janky Christmas Spectacular” at LA’s Bootleg Theatre is our Christmas spectacular of choice. He’s offering “Jewish Jello Shots;” what else do you want?

Weekend


It’s the end of the Fantasy Football season and everything is on the line. We’ll have RedZone on and we’ll be burning incense to please the fantasy gods (Matthew Berry, Scott Hanson, Le’Veon Bell).