Day: June 10, 2020

Summer TV blahs? The British are coming

As TV’s summer takes hold, we covet the few places that have plenty of new shows.
There are the streamers and the premium cable channels of course. There are games on ABC, reality competitions on NBC, quirks on CW, news everywhere. And, especially, there’s PBS.
PBS had already planned a cascade of women’s-rights shows, leading to Aug. 26, the 100th anniversary of the right to vote. It has quickly injected coverage of COVID-19 and of race relations. And it also has what it does best – elegantly crafted British shows each Sunday.
That starts this week (June 14, check local listings), with a 1-2-3 touch: At 8 p.m., a portrait of Prince Albert; at 9, the season-opener of “Grantchester” (shown here); at 10, the debut of “Beecham House.” Read more…

Best-bets for June 12: Time-trek views of gays in America

1) “Prideland” and “The Lavender Scare,” 9 and 10 p.m., PBS (check local listings). Here’s a reverse time machine, showing us attitudes toward gays, present and past. First, Dyllon Burnside (“Pose”) journeys through his native South — he’s shown here in Texas — and finds a get-along mood. The early segments are bland, but then a church-school teacher in Mississippi passionately recalls her adjustment to learning her sons are gay. Contrast that with “Lavender,” a chilling account of an era when the federal government fired all gays. Read more…