Month: March 2020

Stories

A good time for actors, great time for ‘Blood’

Glancing over four decades of TV and movies, Adrian Dunbar was upbeat
.“This is a great time to be an actor,” he said.
He said that quite convincingly – well, actors can do that – and the facts back him up.
Right now, Dunbar, 61, has deeply nuanced roles in two British shows that reach the U.S. via streaming.In “Line of Duty,” he plays an honest-but-troubled cop; in “Blood” and its jolting new seque (shown here)l, he’s an earnest-but-troubled doctor. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 6, 2020
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for March 9: Finales and “Modern” memories

1) “Modern Family” marathon, 8-11 p.m. Wednesday, ABC. As its April 8 farewell nears, this show – five-time winner of the best-comedy Emmy – revisits its splendid past. Here are six episodes chosen by viewers’ votes; that starts with the pilot(shown here)  that introduced Lily to the family and the show to us. At 8:30 is the great moment when the kids spot their parents having sex. Also: Jay helps Manny’s sales at 9; a Las Vegas trip at 9:30; a gem seen through Claire’s computer at 10; an alliance to hide mistakes at 10:30. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 5, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 7: Fun with Bond, Beatles, brothers

1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. We never suspected Daniel Craig could be a funny guy. In his James Bond role (shown here) and others – especially the dark “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” – he seems tough and no-nonsense. But he did host “SNL” in 2012; he also had fun playing a Southern-fried detective in the terrific “Knives Out.” Now Craig – whose next Bond film opens April 10 – hosts. The music guest is The Weeknd, who has done it twice before, plus a couple of times backing others. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 5, 2020
Stories

Joy to the world: “Murdoch” turns 200

In her nomadic, global life, Helene Joy didn’t expected forever. She was lucky to count on tomorrow.
Then she found the essence of stability – Canadians in general and “Murdoch Mysteries” in particular.
That amiable series (shown here with Joy and Yanick Bisson) has its 200th episode Saturday on cable’s Ovation. The episode is filled with famous names – not the actors, but the characters: Edison and Einstein, Carnegie and Curie and more. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 5, 2020
News and Quick Comments

Quick specials: James Lipton, Kirk Douglas, virus

Reacting to death and disease, television has a string of specials – some of them scheduled quickly – in the next few days.
A James Lipton special is today (Wednesday, March 4) on Ovaton, but then will be available online for the next week. A Kirk Douglas marathon is Thursday on Turner Classic Movies and a coronavirus special is Friday on ABC.
Lipton (shown here) died Monday at 93; Douglas died Feb. 5 at 103, but TCM tends to schedule things a month in advance. The specials are: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 4, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 6: CBS giants link

1) “Blue Bloods.,” 10 p.m., CBS. Two key figures in CBS history link tonight. Ed Asner (shown here) arrived a half-century ago in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”; Tom Selleck came 10 years later in “Magnum, P.I.” Combined, those shows spent five years in the Nielsen top-10, 11 years in the top-20. Selleck won an Emmy; Asner won seven, five of them in “MTM” and its “Lou Grant” spin-off. Now Asner, 90, plays the victim of a home invasion; Selleck, 75, plays his friend, the police commissioner. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 4, 2020
Stories

Hillary Clinton: “cold myth” and fiery reality

Looking back at a busy life and a lost election, Hillary Clinton summed things up.
“I have been often – in my view, obviously – mis-characterized, mis-perceived,” she said. “And I have to bear a lot of the responsibility for it.”
She was talking to the Television Critics Association in January (shown here), about the documentary (“Hillary”) that debuts Friday (March 6) on Hulu. And she was saying that it’s her fault, partly, that Donald Trump is president. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 3, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 5: FX has lots of better things

1) “Better Things” season-opener, 10-11:14 p.m., FX. With subtlety and skill, this has the day-to-day lives of Sam (Pamela Adlon, shown here at right), her three daughters and her mother. Now the girls are back from visiting their dad, with fresh requests. One wants a pet; another wants a quinceanera … which you don’t expect in a Jewish family. Sam persists, while working through her own mid-life crisis and her mom’s late-life crises. As always, the result is an appealing mixture of humor, warmth and dismay. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 3, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 4: Two 20s-struggles tales collide

1) “The Twenties” debut, 10 and 10:30 p.m, BET. When Lena Waithe hit her 30s, everything clicked. She got a role in “Master of None,” winning an Emmy for an episode she wrote; she wrote and produced Showtime’s “The Chi” and the movie “Queen & Slim.” Now, at 35, Waithe goes back to her early struggles, when she was an assistant to the “Girlfriends” producer. “Twenties” focuses on three friends (shown here), struggling in Hollywood. It’s sometimes a drama, occasionally a comedy, always loosely likable. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 2, 2020
News and Quick Comments

One more big-deal option: It’s “FX on Hulu”

(Right now, you’ll spot an odd convergence of stories about FX. That’s because the network has been holding back, waiting to start its “FX on Hulu” hub. Now is the time;  highlighted here are stories on FX’s “Breeders” and “Devs”; one on “Dave” is coming. But the story here pauses to take an overview of the hub, including future shows — “Mrs. America” is shown here, with Cate Blanchett as Phyllis Schlafly — and ones this week. Here we go:)
There’s a new streaming service – yes, another one – out there.
Or you might call it a semi-service – a hub to something that was already there. Either way, “FX on Hulu” is a major player. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 2, 2020