The Last Sharknado: It's About Time blows in at 7 p.m. today on Syfy. Don't forget to duck.
Note the self-aware, tongue-in-cheek pun. The movie, indeed, is "about time," specifically time travel, and eye-rolling critics will be relieved that this sixth incarnation of the franchise will be its last.
Hold on, guys. We committed to the goofy premise five years ago and even suffered through a couple of really bad offerings. This is the last one. Might as well gut it out to the toothy end.
Just to remind those who have forgotten, the franchise began in 2013 with the campy, creative, but totally ridiculous original, Sharknado. A cult following sprang up and Syfy responded in successive years with Sharknado 2: The Second One; Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!; Sharknado: The 4th Awakens and Sharknado 5: Global Swarming.
It all began with a freak cyclone dumping sharks in flooded Los Angeles. Bar owner Fin (Ian Ziering) sets out to rescue his estranged wife, April (Tara Reid), and their teenage daughter, Claudia (Aubrey Peeples), before they get eaten by flying sharks.
The second movie transferred the carnage to New York, where the storm repeated itself. The third film found sharks falling from the skies from Washington all the way down to Florida. It was, however, a disappointment.
The fourth incarnation tried the patience of even the most loyal fan. It featured April reconstructed into a cyborg and the sharknado morphing into a bouldernado, firenado, hailnado, lavanado, cownado, nukenado and finally back into a sharknado.
Congratulations to all those who came back for No. 5 after enduring the third and fourth films with their smugness, grating product placement and senseless, incessant C-list cameos. I'm talking about you, Wayne Newton.
Sharknado 5: Global Swarming was a welcome return to the original fun and ended with a cliffhanger. Fin was last seen wandering alone on Earth after it was destroyed. There will be only one way he can set things right -- time travel.
Face it -- if you can accept sharknados, you can accept time travel.
In No. 6, Fin's goal is to travel back in time and stop the original sharknado that began it all and thus save the world. Along the way, he will battle Nazis, dinosaurs, knights and take a ride on Noah's ark.
Fin's tagline: "I'm gonna need a bigger chainsaw."
The guest stars include Tori Spelling, Dean McDermott, LaToya Jackson, Dee Snider, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Darrell Hammond.
• McCartney special. Fans of The Late Late Show host James Corden's exceedingly clever "Carpool Karaoke" segments are in for a treat. Carpool Karaoke: When Corden Met McCartney Live From Liverpool airs at 7 p.m. Monday on CBS. The hour special will include previously unseen footage from the June 21 McCartney segment.
McCartney and Corden's marvelous nostalgic trip down memory lane has been viewed more than 130 million times on Facebook and YouTube.
Executive producer Ben Winston told Entertainment Weekly, "We were overwhelmed by the response. We had to cut so much we loved for time. Not only did Paul do a concert in that Liverpool pub, but James and he discussed so much in the car. Now everyone can see the joy of that concert and more of their chat."
• Video Music Awards. The 2018 MTV Video Music Awards will air at 8 p.m. Monday on, of course, MTV. This is the 35th annual showcase for the videos and will be the 12th time the show has come from New York's Radio City Music Hall.
Among others, performers will include Ariana Grande, Logic with Ryan Tedder, Post Malone, Travis Scott and Shawn Mendes. Jennifer Lopez will also perform, as well as accept this year's Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.
Rapper Cardi B (real name Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar) leads the list with 10 nominations.
• Mayans M.C. I'm getting advanced emails from Sons of Anarchy fans asking when Kurt Sutter's next motorcycle adventure is rolling out. The drama, set more than two years after the Sons of Anarchy saga, debuts at 9 p.m. Sept. 4 on FX and "follows Ezekiel "EZ" Reyes (JD Pardo), who is fresh out of prison and a prospect in the Mayans M.C. charter on the Cali/Mexi border."
The 10-episode first season also stars a large ensemble, including Edward James Olmos, Sarah Bolger and Danny Pino.
Co-creator Sutter recently told TV critics gathered in Los Angeles, "The stories that I like to tell and the characters I like to create are damaged, but I never write [them] from the point of view of them being dangerous or bad. I write them from the idea that they're human beings with complex feelings."
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style on 08/19/2018