The It List: BTS brings 'Dynamite' energy to 'MTV Unplugged,' new 'Superman & Lois' series launches, Tom and Jerry take their cat-and-mouse game to the big screen and the best in pop culture the week of Feb. 22, 2021

The It List is Yahoo’s weekly look at the best in pop culture, including movies, music, TV, streaming, games, books, podcasts and more. During the coronavirus pandemic, when most of us are staying at home, we’re going to spotlight things you can enjoy from your couch, whether solo or in small groups, and leave out the rest. With that in mind, here are our picks for Feb. 22-28, including the best deals we could find for each. (Yahoo Entertainment may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page.)

WATCH IT: MTV Unplugged goes K-pop with BTS

Unstoppable K-poppers BTS are known for their glossy production and stylized choreography, but on MTV Unplugged Presents: BTS, the soulful Seoul group remains seated, strips everything back and puts the focus squarely on their smooth septuple harmonies. The historic special promises to showcase international No. 1 hits like “Dynamite” and “Life Goes On” as they’ve never been heard before. — Lyndsey Parker

MTV Unplugged Presents: BTS airs Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 9 p.m. on MTV.

WATCH IT: Superman & Lois brings the Man of Steel back to television

Look up on The CW! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s the first live-action Superman TV series since Lois & Clark! Yeah, yeah, we know about Smallville, but that show had a strict “no tights, no flights” rule that it stuck to for 10 seasons. In contrast, Superman & Lois puts the Man of Steel in tights and in flight within the first five minutes of the series premiere. Funnily enough, though, the latest addition to Greg Berlanti’s ever-expanding Arrowverse then goes and sends its hero back to his hometown. That’s right, Clark Kent (Tyler Hoechlin) and Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch) — who made their first appearance on the soon-to-end Supergirl — trade bustling Metropolis for sleepy Smallville, a move that doesn’t exactly thrill their teenage sons: high-school football star Jonathan (Jordan Elsass) and video-game obsessed Jordan (Alexander Garfin). Speaking of other news that wouldn’t thrill them, Lois and Clark have thus far avoided telling the boys that they’ve got Superman for a dad… or that one (or both!) of them might have traces of his Kryptonian powers mixed into their own DNA. As for the Big Blue Boy Scout, he’s suddenly confronted with old flames like Lana Lang (Entourage’s Emmanuel Chriqui) and new villains like The Stranger, a mysterious menace with serious anti-Superman beliefs. Maybe life in Smallville won’t be quite so sleepy after all… — Ethan Alter

Superman & Lois premieres Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. on The CW.

STREAM IT: Tom and Jerry: The Movie proves the characters have more than 9 lives

Cartoon favorites Tom and Jerry, first created in 1940, get a new look in this modern mishmash of animation and live action. While the animals are the stars here, humans Chloë Grace Moretz, Michael Peña, Ken Jeong and Colin Jost join them. In this adventure, Jerry takes up residence at the hotel where Moretz works, so she brings in Tom to solve the problem ahead of “the wedding of the century.” It’s easy for a cat to chase out a mouse, right? As you can imagine, Tom’s eager to settle the score with his frenemy of, oh, about 80 years now. There are differences, sure, but many elements of the franchise remain intact: hammers being slammed, knives being hurled and electrocutions that cause skeletons to be exposed. — Raechal Shewfelt

Tom and Jerry: The Movie arrives Friday, Feb. 26 in theaters and on HBO Max.

WATCH IT: Complete your John Hughes library with Paramount’s five-movie Blu-ray collection

Come to Paramount’s new John Hughes collection for a trio of stone-cold 1980s classics: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Pretty in Pink and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Stay for the Blu-ray debuts of two lesser-remembered Hughes joints, 1987’s Some Kind of Wonderful and 1988’s She’s Having a Baby. Hughes himself directed Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth McGovern in the latter film — his last “adult” movie before the back-to-back successes of Uncle Buck and Home Alone pushed him in a child-oriented direction for the remainder of his career. The script for Some Kind of Wonderful, meanwhile, was handed off to Pretty in Pink director, Howard Deutch, although he had second thoughts after they had trouble casting the film. (Eric Stoltz, Mary Stuart Masterson and Lea Thompson eventually played the three points of the film’s love triangle.) When he expressed his concerns to Hughes, Deutch was unceremoniously fired. “I basically was thrown off the lot,” he remembers in this exclusive clip from a featurette included on the Blu-ray. “[John] took it personally: He doesn’t just casually offer you work.” Eventually, Deutch returned to the director’s chair after his replacement also clashed with the mercurial Hughes — who subsequently rewrote the movie as a drama — but even then it wasn’t the smoothest shoot. The finished film is compromised by those behind-the-scenes battles, but it remains a fascinating piece of Hughes’s one-of-a-kind career. — E.A.

The John Hughes 5-Movie Collection is available Tuesday, Feb. 23 on Amazon.

STREAM IT: You should see her on a screen — Billie Eilish debuts personal new doc

One year ago, Billie Eilish made history as the youngest artist to sweep the Grammys’ “Big 4” categories (Record, Song and Album of the Year, plus Best New Artist), and the first to do so since 1981; she also became the youngest artist to ever record a James Bond theme. Now the 19-year-old “My Future” singer looks back at the making of her Grammy-winning debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and her adjustment to sudden fame in a two-hour documentary, Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry. It “a true coming-of-age story” so personal, she actually banned her own family members from seeing it until it was completed. — L.P.

Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry premieres Friday, Feb. 26 on AppleTV+.

STREAM IT: Peacock’s Punky Brewster revival arrives with plenty of Punky Power

Hot on the heels of Peacock’s surprisingly great Saved by the Bell revival, Universal’s new streaming service now adds some Punky Power to its lineup of original series. Soleil Moon Frye returns to the role that catapulted her to child stardom in the 1980s in an all-new version of Punky Brewster, which picks up in the present day with a recently-divorced Punky re-living her childhood by bringing a foster daughter, Izzy (Quinn Copeland), into her family of three. Punky’s pal, Cherie (Cherie Johnson), is back as well, and her foster father Henry (George Gaynes, who died in 2016) is present in spirit. While there’s plenty of sitcom hijinks, the new Punky also packs plenty of emotional punch, wrestling with such weighty issues as separation (Freddie Prinze Jr. plays the ex-Mr. Brewster) and finding family where you least expect it. Here’s hoping they come up with a Halloween episode as freaky as the notorious “Perils of Punky” two-parter. — E.A.

Punky Brewster premieres Thursday, Feb. 25 on Peacock.

STREAM IT: Tom Holland shows off his dark side in Cherry

Peter Parker, this is not. Tom Holland’s eponymous Cherry is a sex-having, pill-popping, bank-robbing army vet in this dark and oftentimes heavy departure from his frequent role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. The film’s directors also share some MCU DNA: They’re Infinity War and Endgame helmers Joe and Anthony Russo, who recruit one of their supes for an unrelated solo outing for a third time after 2019’s 21 Bridges with Chadwick Boseman and 2020’s Extraction with Chris Hemsworth (the Russos produced both under their AGBO banner). The filmmaking bros bring the action back to their Cleveland, Ohio hometown, where a lovelorn Cherry (Holland) joins the army after he thinks his girlfriend (Ciara Bravo) is leaving him, endures a brutal tour in Iraq and develops punishing PTSD that, paired with he and his now-wife’s heroin addictions, sends him on a desperate bank-robbing spree. Cherry is A LOT, but it is most definitely worth picking. — Kevin Polowy

Cherry premieres Friday, Feb. 26 on Apple TV+.

WATCH IT: A vintage Betty White show that you haven’t seen resurfaces (Bonus: It co-stars some cute critters)

The Golden Girls actress has always been a friend to animals. She’s known for supporting animal charities and, in 2012, she even authored Betty and Friends: My Life at the Zoo, a scrapbook of photos and stories of her favorite animals. Fifty years ago, two years before her memorable stint on The Mary Tyler Moore Show began, she created and hosted a TV series featuring her celebrity friends — Moore, Carol Burnett, Burt Reynolds, Della Reese and others — stopping by with their dogs, cats, birds and horses. White introduced wild animals, too: tigers, bears, elephants, gorillas and seals all make appearances. The show has been largely unavailable to fans since it wrapped after 32 episodes in 1971, but that’s about to change. The DVD extras include featurettes on White’s storied television career, vintage public service ads and a look at her extensive work on game shows, beginning in the 1950s. “If I haven’t told you already, I will now,” White said in anticipation of the release. “The Pet Set is one of my favorite shows. I’m thrilled it's going to be seen again after all these years.” — R.S.

Betty White’s Pet Set is available Tuesday, Feb. 23 on DVD on Amazon.

WATCH IT: The stars come out virtually for the delayed Golden Globe Awards

Any other year, we’d already be past this first big ceremony of awards season and on to the Oscars, but nothing is quite normal yet. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will hand out its trophies a month later, in a largely virtual event, hosted by Tina Fey from the Rainbow Room in New York City and Amy Poehler at the regular venue, the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. The nominees, including Viola Davis for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Sacha Baron Cohen for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, are expected to appear from various locations around the world. Awkwafina, Cynthia Erivo, Joaquin Phoenix, Kristen Wiig. Renee Zellweger, more will present, while Spike Lee’s kids, Satchel and Jackson Lee, will serve as this year’s ambassadors. Going into the night, the most nominated projects are Netflix’s movies Mank (six) and The Trial of the Chicago 7 (five). Its series The Crown leads the TV categories with six nods. See all of Yahoo Entertainment’s predictions for the celebs, TV shows and movies that will win big in the top categories. — R.S.

The 78th Golden Globes air Sunday, Feb. 28 coast to coast from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. PT/8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET on NBC.

HEAR IT: Alice Cooper gets his Motor running

The Motor City legend returns to his shock-rockin’ roots on Detroit Stories, inspired by his hometown’s punk scene in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s. The record features covers of Cooper’s fellow Detroit heroes like the Stooges, production by his longtime collaborator Bob Ezrin and playing by Detroit musicians like the MC5’s Wayne Kramer, the Motor City Horns, the Detroit Wheels’ Johnny “Bee” Badanjek and Steve Hunter. — L.P.

Detroit Stories by Alice Cooper is available to download/stream Friday, Feb 26 on Apple Music.

CREATE IT: Make your own music video magic with Lego’s new AR-powered Vidiyo app

Drop a beat, pick up your smartphone and create a brick-tacular music video with Lego’s new Vidiyo virtual experience. The toy giant’s new AR-enhanced app allows kids, teens and adults to port tricked-out mini-figures into a virtual environment, and then have them bust a groove to a catalogue of popular tunes provided by Universal Music Group. Mix and match the different Lego characters to create multiple bands, outfit them with shirts, jumpsuits and other accessories and then crank up the Jonas Brothers or Imagine Dragons and let them loose on your living room stage. And make sure to hit record, because you’ll instantly want to share them within the Vidiyo community. The Vidiyo app is available on the IOS and Android app stores now, and the first wave of Lego Beatbox and Bandmates sets will be on shelves on March 1. — E.A.

Learn all about Vidiyo on Lego.com.

WATCH IT: Diana Ross still shines in Lady Sings the Blues Blu-ray

This weekend marks the premiere of Hulu’s The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Lee Daniels’s exposé of the government’s racist harassment of the pioneering jazz singer, played by an exceptional Andra Day (“Rise Up”). That’s as good an excuse as any to do a double feature and revisit the O.G. of Holiday movies, 1972’s Lady Sings the Blues, which marked the feature film lead of another incredibly talented songstress, Diana Ross, who earned an Oscar nomination for the role. A more wider-encompassing look at Holiday’s life, the acclaimed Sidney J. Furie-directed biopic also features stellar turns from Richard Pryor and Billy Dee Williams. Paramount marks the occasion with the film’s first-ever Blu-ray release, which includes commentary from Furie and executive producer/Motown king Berry Gordy as well as deleted scenes. — K.P.

Lady Sings the Blues is available on Blu-ray Tuesday, Feb. 23 on Amazon.

HEAR IT: The Red-Headed Stranger covers Ol’ Blue Eyes

Country superstar Willie Nelson is a longtime Frank Sinatra fan, first paying tribute to the crooner on his 1978 standards collection Stardust and most recently winning the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Solo Album for My Way, his 2018 all-Sinatra covers record. Now on That’s Life, Nelson continues his exploration of the Sinatra songbook, as he put his own stamp on Chairman classics like “I've Got You Under My Skin,” “You Make Me Feel So Young,” “That's Life,” “Luck Be a Lady” and “I Won't Dance” — the latter a duet with jazz stylist Diana Krall. — L.P.

That's Life by Willie Nelson is available to download/stream Friday, Feb 26 on Apple Music.

— Video produced by Jon San and edited by John Santo