TV sometimes has idealized worlds, where people know and care for every neighbor.It’s had Mayberry and Walton’s Mountain and Smurfs Village and such. And now, it has … well, a chunk of New York City.Lorraine Toussaint, who stars, says that’s believable. “’The Village’ is not at all foreign to me,” she said. “It’s an old New York that I knew.” Read more…
1) “Empire” and “Star” return, 8 and 9 p.m. Wednesday, Fox. “Empire” has had lots of attention lately, none of it enviable; stories focus on Jussie Smollett, who faces criminal charges and was written out of the season’s final two episodes. You’ll see his character (Jamal) here, struggling with his love life. But Jamal is just one part of a rich blend of great music and brash soap opera. Now the family has a shot at reclaiming its record label. Then, at 9 p.m., Star – who has just had her baby – jeopardizes her career. Read more…
1) “For the People,” 10 p.m., ABC. After a terrific season-opener last week, the show Read more…
In its long lifetime, “Project Runway” has kept bouncing around.It’s gone from Bravo to Lifetime and back to Bravo.
It’s escaped the ownership of Harvey Weinstein. It’s changed hosts and mentors and more.It even dumped the original producers … then put them back in charge. “We keep saying, ‘It’s like getting your baby back,” Jane Lipsitz said.
Except, of course, that babies are never the same after 14 years and 17 TV seasons. Read more…
We used to think scams were just for rubes and suckers. Slick grifters cheated the unsuspecting.That was before Bernie Madoff bilked the wealthy. It was before Elizabeth Holmes.Her company, Theranos, drew prominent backers. “Rupert Murdoch, I think, invested $125 million,” said Alex Gibney, whose HBO documentary is Monday … three days after one on ABC. Read more…
Fiction, it seems, is way more fun than real life. That’s because you can rewrite the ending.
Marcia Clark disliked the real ending of the O.J. Simpson murder trial: She lost; he won.
But now she’s helping write and produce a fictional tale that sounds familiar, with a twist. Read more…
It’s been 14 months since we had a new “Better Things” episode, but don’t despair. The season-opener (Feb. 28) indicates the show is better than ever.
Yes, Pamela Adlon says, show-business has plenty of frazzled, fractured people.There’s ambition and despair. There’s “that angry air that hangs over so many.”And yes, she’s always wanted to be in the business.“I grew up on sound stages with my dad,” she said. Don Seagall had a successful decade, writing comedy scripts; his daughter savored it all. Read more…
A brief sampling — Josh Groban singing “Bridge Over Troubled Water” at Madison Square Garden — makes one thing clear: This powerhouse singer is in the hands of skillful TV people. Groban’s concert is Monday on most PBS stations, a key element to their pledge drives.
For Josh Groban, this all happened in a sudden swoosh.
He was, he says, a teen-ager with a “blissful naivete,” belting out show tunes at home and in class. Suddenly, he was with two important Davids (Foster and Kelley) and a Rosie (O’Donnell). He became a music star and now a key to the latest pledge drive. Read more…
At times, this show is merely kinda-good, in a stop-and-start, hit-and-miss way. But it soars Read more…
This may have been last season’s best new show, but it almost got lost in Read more…
