Day: June 14, 2020

Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for June 16: Mae West and crisis overload

1) “One Day at a Time,” 6:30-10 p.m., Pop. Here’s the entire season – what there was, before the virus shutdown – plus a bonus, a new episode via animation. First, the reruns: They start with a very clever bit, with Ray Romano as a census-taker, explaining the characters to new viewers. Then “One Day” (shown here) settles into being a fairly good (albeit too broad) comedy, The new episode is at 9:30 p.m. (simulcast on TV Land) and reruns at 12:30 a.m. Guest stars include Lin-Manuel Miranda and Gloria Estefan. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 14, 2020
Stories

Animation helps fill the TV-shutdown void

(Yes, this does look suspiciously like a story I wrote a few weeks ago, about cartoon voice-master Billy West. Since then, there’s been a surge of animation, so I’ve updated it. Anyway, he’s an interesting guy and animation neatly fills some virus-shutdown time.)
As TV scrambles to find social-distance drama, a logical option appears: What about animation?
There’s been a flurry lately, sometinmes spurred by the virus, other times just a coincidence. Consider;
– STREAMING: Two new animated series – both planned long before the quarantine – have opened on streaming networks. “Central Park” (new episodes each Friday on Apple TV+) has drawn raves; “Crossing Swords” (which released all 10 episodes June 12 on Hulu) has drawn mixed reviews. They join “Disenchanted” (shown here) on Netflix and more, including Pixar on Disney+ and a ton of Japanese anime on HBO Max. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 14, 2020