Start off the new year on the right foot with our Channel Surfing TV picks of the week. We have a graphic novel adaptation, a reality competition, and a teen drama. Watch how one person’s loss of hearing unleashed their inner superhero in El Deafo. Meet America’s next drag superstar in RuPaul’s Drag Race. Then, get ready for more sex, drugs, and friendship in the new season of Euphoria.
A Different Superhero
Cece Bell documented her personal childhood experience with hearing loss in the graphic novel, El Deafo. It was critically acclaimed earning an Eisner Award and winning a Newbery Medal Honor in 2015. More importantly, it allowed children who were deaf to see themselves in a positive light in literature. Hopefully, with its new TV adaptation, it can reach an even larger audience.
It is an autobiographical story of how Bell lost her hearing at a young age and had to learn to use a Phonic Ear hearing aid. She deals with the frustrations and insecurity of being different but also finds her assistive device empowering making her superhero-esque. Plus, all the characters are drawn as cute rabbits.
El Deafo will be released Friday, January 7, on Apple TV+.
A Game Changing Season
The Drag Race franchise includes numerous spin-offs and international versions but this week we come back to the one that started it all. RuPaul’s Drag Race comes back for its fourteenth season and fittingly, fourteen queens will be vying for the $100,000 grand prize.
We learned of this season’s cast in early December from the most recent winner, Symone. Amongst them is the first ever heterosexual, cisgender male as a contestant. Expect over the top performances and outfits along with a variety of celebrity judges including Lizzo, Taraji P. Henson, and Alicia Keys. The stakes are high and in another of the show’s first, one lucky person receives a save but it’s blindly selected so they’ll never know who has it until they’re eliminated.
RuPaul’s Drag Race will have a two-part premiere this Friday, January 7, on VH1.
Happy New Year
There has been a long wait for the second season of Euphoria with its inaugural season finishing up in the summer of 2019. At least in that time, we’ve received two specials focusing on Zendaya’s Rue and Hunter Schafer’s Jules.
Soon, the wait will be over when the teen drama finally returns later in the week. In the new season, Rue manages the repercussions of her actions in the previous finale. Not only does she wrestle with her addiction following a relapse, but she longs to be with Jules again after ditching her at the train station. We’ll also catch up with the other kids from East Highland High and see what problems they face.
The season two premiere of Euphoria will air Sunday, January 9, on HBO.
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