Day: May 2, 2020

Stories

Social-distance drama? It’s flawed, but fascinating

Any experiment – Wright Brothers’ flight, man on the moon, mixing chocolate with marshmallow – will have its problems.
Let’s think of the upcoming “All Rise” episode (son here) — 9 p.m. Monday, May 4, on CBS — that way. It’s flawed, but fascinating.
As COVID-19 struck, productions shut down and actors were sent home. Then came the idea of concocting an episode that could be done from their homes … representing the characters’ homes. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 2, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for May 4: Distanced drama and music

1) “All Rise,” 9 p.m., CBS. Consider this a grand experiment, flawed  but fascinating, For the first time, a major network drama has made a full social-distance hour.  Judge Carmichal (Simone Missick, shown here) is preparing her first virtual trial, with two of her friends (Mark and Emily) as prosecutor and defense attorney; Judge Benner supervises … while learning to cook. We see the whole thing via video chats, sometimes punctuated by a mellow Los Angeles disc jockey. The whole thing is shot at the actors’ homes, then edited cleverly. The people parts are great; the virtual-courtroom parts are an illogical mess. Experiments are like that. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 2, 2020