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The Drive with BNotes

Franklin Armstrong Gets His Own Series After 56 years

Author O'Brien Notes
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 23: The Snoopy balloon floats in Macy's annual Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 23, 2023 in New York City. Thousands of people lined the streets to watch the 25 balloons and hundreds of performers march in this parade happening since 1924. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

We all love the famous Peanut gang, you know Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy and Linus Van Pelt, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Pig-Pen, Sally Brown, and Woodstock.  Well, let me tell you what Apple TV is doing.  There is one character that we can relate to, you know the black one, Snoopy is present Welcome Home Franklin.  This is the origin story of Franklin Armstrong and his adjusting to his new home and friends.  In this series he is introduced to the kids in his new neighborhood who are not quite the peanut gang we know.  He is struggling to meet new friends until he runs into Charlie Brown.  It also opens up about the importance of friendship and trust.

What I like about this series is that they take a lot of the ideas of integration between two races and give it a comedic relief.  One of the things I recognized from this series is when they told Franklin to sit on the same side as them.  If you remember from back in the day, the entire peanut gang would sit at the table and Franklin would be the only one sitting on the opposite side.  Lately, in the media, this has been a controversial topic, questioning the show’s writer Charles Schulz.  The show was done by cartoonist and screenwriter Robb Armstrong, who is an African-American and may be the reason behind the change.

Robb Armstrong was supported by Charles Schulz since the creation of Franklin’s character and also inspired the character’s last name.  In an interview with Apple TV+, Robb expressed that he wanted Franklin to express race and other issues that audiences have never seen before.  To have this special air during Black History Month is meaningful, it has been 56 years since the show’s release and we finally get to see the First Black Peanuts characters in his series.

The series is now streaming on Apple TV+.

Notable Films And Shows That Hit Streaming In February 2024

With the Oscars fast approaching, streamers are steadily adding nominated films to their platforms, and we are here for it. Nominated for 13 Oscars, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer will be available to stream on February 16 on Peacock. Oppenheimer follows the story of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy), who was appointed to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II. Oppenheimer and a team of scientists spent years developing and designing the atomic bomb, to find their work has come to fruition on July 16, 1945 (Trinity), as they witness the world’s first nuclear explosion, forever changing the course of history. Nolan’s other features will be made available on the streamer earlier on the first of the month, including his debut film, Memento, and the award-winning Dunkirk.

Other than that, highly-anticipated series are also coming out in February. The latest adaptation of Mr. and Mrs. Smith will hit Prime Video, starring Donald Glover and Maya Erskine in the first season of the romantic action drama. The entirety of the first season drops at once on February 2. February is Black History Month, and the new Genius: MLK/X anthology series starring Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Aaron Pierre as Malcolm X will stream on February 2 on Hulu and Disney+. It’s a dramatization of the formative years and parallel struggles of the two iconic civil rights activists. For fans of the beloved original Nickelodeon animated series, the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender will come to Netflix on February 22.

Already Streaming

As we previously reported, Sofia Vergara’s dramatic debut as real-life Colombian cartel boss Griselda Blanco is already streaming on Netflix. The Modern Family alum looks completely unrecognizable in the Griselda miniseries, which is six one-hour episodes long. Griselda tells the fictionalized account of the rise and fall of the “Godmother of Cocaine” during the violent drug wars in Miami in the ’70s and ’80s.

Keep scrolling to see the hottest films and shows coming to Netflix, Hulu, Max, Prime Video, Peacock, Paramount+ and other streaming services in February.

  • The Tiger’s Apprentice

    This animated fantasy film is based on the children’s book series of the same name by Laurence Yep. The Nickelodeon film features the voices of Henry Golding, Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh, Bowen Yang, and Michelle Yeoh. The story follows a young boy in San Francisco who meets a talking tiger named Mr. Hu (Golding) and discovers he’s the latest in a long line of guardians who protect an ancient phoenix from evildoers. It streams on February 2 on Paramount+.

  • Curb Your Enthusiasm

    We unfortunately say goodbye to Larry David’s hilarious comedy series. The 12th and final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm will stream on Max on February 4. The series premiered in 2000, and is based on a version of David on the improvised series. His comedy is genius and he tends to say the most out of pocket things to people, that we sometimes wish we had the audacity to say out loud. Most episodes center around his complete disregard of society’s expectations or his simple ignorance of things.

  • The Marvels

    The latest Marvel superhero film makes its streaming debut on Disney+ on February 7. The Marvels unites Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and Kamala Khan AKA, Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), who have been entangled with Captain Marvel’s power. Despite their reluctance to work with each other, and Ms. Marvel’s over-eagerness to work with her idol, they are forced to team up as “the Marvels” after they begin swapping places with each other every time they use their powers. Samuel L. Jackson returns to reprise his role as Nick Fury, with the film’s version of Fury to be much more easygoing than the hardened version from the Disney+ miniseries Secret Invasion.

  • Abbott Elementary

    A new season of our favorite mockumentary series returns to Hulu on February 8. After the writers and actors strikes, fans of the comedy show had to wait nearly a year for season three to be on television again. The award-winning series stars Quinta Brunson, Tyler James Williams, Lisa Ann Walter, Chris Perfetti, and Sheryl Lee Ralph as the group of passionate teachers dedicated to their students and school, their wild principal, played by Janelle James, and the janitor (William Stanford Davis) round out the recurring cast members.

  • Players

    Gina Rodriguez and Damon Wayans Jr. star in the romantic comedy dropping on Valentine’s Day on Netflix. A New York sportswriter named Mack (Rodriguez) spends her time making hook-up schemes alongside Adam (Wayans Jr.), her best friend. However, when Mack unexpectedly falls for a fling, she must go from playing the field to playing for keeps. Rodriguez is known for her starring role in the Jane the Virgin series and her Someone Great rom-com from 2019. Wayans Jr. is known for his starring role in the New Girl series and the comedy film 2014 Let’s Be Cops.

  • Mea Culpa

    Kelly Rowland stars as a criminal defense attorney in Tyler Perry’s steamy legal thriller on February 23 on Netflix. She agrees to defend a seductive artist (Trevante Rhodes) accused of murdering his girlfriend. But when desire take hold, things get hot… and dangerous. “This idea came to me because I love all of those older thrillers from the ’80s and ’90s,” Perry told Tudum. “It was fun to explore the best and worst of humanity through the genre of an exotic thriller.” Rhodes is known for his starring roles in 2016’s Moonlight and 2018’s Bird Box.

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