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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 2020)
number of these issues repre- sented in the entertainment world. On Monday, Jan. 13, this series filled with heart and humor that also presents the realities of liv- ing with anxiety premieres. “The Healing Powers of Dude” centers on Noah Ferris (newcomer Jace Chapman), an 11-year-old boy whose crippling social anxiety makes even simple activities feel impossible. After years of being homeschooled (for obvious rea- sons), Noah tells his parents that he wants to try going to middle school and hopefully make friends with people he’s not related to. Proud of their son’s bravery, they agree, but to help him through all he’s about to face, they get him a scruffy emotional support dog named Dude (voiced by Steve Zahn, “Treme”). Dude may be sarcastic, have a mild addiction to treats and a short attention span, By Jessica Gosse TV Media “Grace and Frankie” Season 6 On Wednesday, Jan. 15, Jane Fon- da (“Book Club,” 2018) and Lily Tomlin (“Web Therapy”) return in Season 6 of this Emmy-nominated series. The show follows the lives of Grace (Fonda) and Frankie (Tomlin), whose lives have been upturned since they discovered that their husbands are gay and have been lovers for decades. At the end of Season 5, we saw Grace marry Nick (Peter Gallagher, “The O.C.”), and she and Frankie con- templated how different their lives would be had they not decided to live together after the big revela- tion. The new season is sure to fea- ture tensions as a result of Grace’s new marriage, and showrunner Marta Kauffman has hinted that Frankie may rekindle her relation- ship with ex-boyfriend Jacob (Er- nie Hudson, “L.A.’s Finest”). “Sex Education” Season 2 Asa Butterfield (“The Space Between Us,” 2017) returns in Season 2 of this dramedy pre- miering Friday, Jan. 17. He plays socially awkward Otis Milburn, whose mother, Jean (Gillian Anderson, “The X-Files”), is a sex therapist. Since his mother is a sex therapist, Otis is well versed in awkward situations and has more knowledge about sex than Lily Tomlin in “Grace and Frankie” the average teenager. He becomes the unofficial sex therapist for his fellow classmates when Maeve (newcomer Emma Mackey) sees his knowledge as a financial opportunity and begins finding him clients. The series serves as a coming-of-age tale for a number of characters, whether it’s Otis’ girlfriend Ola (Patricia Allison, “Les Misérables”), Eric (Ncuti Gatwa, “Stonemouth”), who is struggling with his homosexuality and religion, Lily (Tanya Reynolds, “Delicious”), a frustrated virgin, or Jackson (Kedar Williams-Stirling, “Wolfblood”), the golden boy trying to get a girlfriend. Season 1 dealt with so many issues (bullying, masturbation, LGBTQ, abortion, drugs, etc.), and Season 2 won’t shy away from anything as Otis copes with his newly dis- covered sexual urges and tries to make his new relationship work, and everyone at school faces an outbreak of chlamydia, putting the “clinic” in high demand. “Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts” On Tuesday, Jan. 14, catch the premiere of this animated com- edy series that has a similar feel to “Futurama” with a little “Alice in Wonderland” mixed in. The but he and Noah may just be the perfect pair. “Tyler Perry’s A Fall From Grace” (2020) The multi-talented Tyler Perry (creator of the Madea movie franchise) makes his Netflix film debut this Friday, Jan. 17, with the premiere of his new thriller, “A Fall From Grace.” The film follows a divorced woman who is finally starting to find happiness in a new relationship, but her happiness is short-lived as secrets begin to destroy her life. Not only does Perry act as producer for this project, he also appears in the film alongside an all-star cast that includes Crys- tal Fox (“The Haves and the Have Nots”), Phylicia Rashad (“Em- pire”), Bresha Webb (“Sextuplets,” 2019) and Cicely Tyson (“The Help,” 2011). series follows Kipo (voiced by Karen Fukuhara, “The Boys”), a curious girl who has spent her life living in an underground burrow since the Great Mutant Outbreak, an event that caused creatures (animals, bugs, etc.) to become giant and develop intelligence, forcing humans underground. When a mutant attack leaves her stranded above ground, she sets out to find her father and make her way home, befriending a motley crew of humans and mu- tants along the way. Kipo quickly develops survival skills when she realizes that, while the creatures are oddly adorable, a lot of them also want all humans dead. The show features the voices of Ster- ling K. Brown (“This Is Us”), Deon Cole (“Black-ish”), Dan Stevens (“Legion”) and Lea DeLaria (“Orange Is the New Black”), and you won’t want to miss this new comedy. “The Healing Powers of Dude” In the past few years, awareness and understanding of mental health disorders has grown, and there have been an increasing Tanya Reynolds and Patricia Allison in “Sex Education” 20 | Screentime January 15, 2020 | East Oregonian and Hermiston Herald Jace Chapman in “The Healing Powers of Dude”
