Boybands Forever - Season 1
Season 1
Episodes
Episode 1
It's 1990. Poll tax rioters are setting the nation's capital ablaze, and prime minister Margaret Thatcher is being ousted by her own MPs. But a welcome distraction comes in the twinkly eyed form of a pop phenomenon which will define the decade: the boyband.
Taking a cue from the all-singing, all-dancing American pop act New Kids on the Block, the UK's Take That and East 17 would dance and shimmy their way through the British pop charts in the first half of the decade, clearing the way for a long conga line of other handsome, crooning hunks.
Episode 2
Tony Blair is heading for a landslide at his first general election, signalling the start of a new political era. For the nation's boybands, change is also in the air. With the implosion of pioneers Take That, their rivals East 17 see the way clear to clean up in the charts.
But after a notorious radio interview in which frontman Brian Harvey confesses to taking 12 ecstasy pills in one night, the band Five, capitalising on the new 'lad culture' of the time, are rapidly ctapulted into an unknown world of fame and idolatry.
Episode 3
It's the summer of 2001, and for several of Britain's biggest boybands, life in the limelight is coming to an end. Despite almost 20 million albums sold between them, East 17 and Take That have called time on their pop dreams. Five-piece Damage has hit a glass ceiling. Tweenager heartthrobs 911 have burned out, and bad boys Five are hanging by a thread.
Waiting in the wings are four-piece Blue and Irish balladeers Westlife, whose stars begin to rise just as those of their forebears fade. The bigger threat to the boy bands, however, is the new era of reality TV: Pop Idol, Popstars and The X Factor.
Recently Updated Shows
The Daily Show
Hosted by a rotating cast of comedy greats, The Daily Show remains the go-to source for provocative satire, insightful interviews and an award-winning team of correspondents and contributors.
Irish Blood
Irish Blood focuses on Fiona, whose path in life is earmarked by her father, Declan, who seemingly abandoned her and her mother on her tenth birthday. After years of channelling anger toward him, to the benefit of her litigious clients, a message from her father sends her to Ireland. There she learns key truths about her father as well as a family that doesn't know she exists, and, moreover, that the story of abandonment that has shaped her entire life - was a lie. A lie intended to protect her and her mother from her father's shady business dealings. Fiona resolves to uncover the full truth about her father and reconnect with the parent she only thought she knew.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
On Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, John Oliver presents a satirical look at the week in news, politics and current events.
Your Friends & Neighbors
Coop is a recently divorced hedge fund manager who, after being fired, resorts to stealing from the wealthy residents in his tony upstate New York suburb in order to keep his family's lifestyle afloat. These petty crimes begin to reinvigorate him until he breaks into the wrong house at the wrong time.
Government Cheese
Government Cheese is a surrealist family comedy set in 1969 San Fernando Valley that tells the story of the Chambers, a quirky family pursuing lofty and seemingly impossible dreams, beautifully unfettered by the realities of the world. When Hampton Chambers is released from prison, his long-awaited family reunion doesn't go quite as he'd planned. During his absence, Hampton's wife, Astoria, and sons, Einstein and Harrison, have formed an unconventional family unit, and Hampton's return spins their world into chaos.