Day: August 26, 2020

News and Quick Comments

ABC sets specials on Washington march, shark survivor

ABC News has set specials on two opposite subjects –one about a massive march (shown here) and the other an individual ordeal. They are:
FRIDAY (Aug. 28): On the 57th anniversary of the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,” ABC will rerun “The March.” Narrated by Denzel Washington, the 2013 film interviewed John Lewis, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Joan Baez, Oprah Winfrey and others, including Clarence Jones, who helped draft Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 26, 2020
Stories

CBS sets makeship September schedule: “Trek,” “Race,” more

CBS will join the push to wipe away reruns this fall.
Following a trend started by two smaller networks, it will launch a makeshift line-up next month, giving its main shows more time to ease back from the COVID shutdown.
The difference is in timing: Fox and CW — see previous report under “stories” — have both delayed their regular line-up until January; CBS programming chief Kelly Kahl is slightly more confident: “We hope to start rolling out our previously announced fall series as they become available in November,” he said in a statement.
Until then, he has a reality-heavy line-up that includes extending summer shows and transplanting a few scripted ones – including the first season of “Star Trek: Discovery” (shown here in the second season) and the truncated fourth season of the “One Day At a Time” reboot – that have aired elsewhere. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 26, 2020
News and Quick Comments

A strong Canadian drama transplants to NBC

“Transplant” lives up to its name in many ways.
It’s a Canadian series, transplanted to the U.S. and NBC. It’s about a Syrian man (Hamza Haq, shown here), transplanted to Canada. It’s about a restaurant worker, transplanted to …
Well, we won’t get ahead of ourselves on that. The show’s opening episode (10 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 1) parcels out information slowly and deliberately. It’s best to watch it in that way. When you get to the spoiler point, later in this review, please stop reding until you’ve seen the episode. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 26, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Aug. 28: Savage kin, quirky talent

1) “Savage Kingdom” (shown here) season-finale, 9-11 p.m., National Geographic. So a mom comes home and finds her kids are missing. So is the dad, who was supposed to watch them; instead, his no-account brother is there. Soon, she and the kids are leaving, looking for her sister and a new domain. That story – about a lioness – is one of several in the finale of this three-week, six-hour series. Others involve a cheetah, an outcast hyena and the leader of a pack of wild dogs. “Kingdom” is beautifully filmed, but, well, savage. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 26, 2020
Stories

The Queen: A sprawling life in three phases

Boiling any life story down to an hour can be tricky. Now try the story of Queen Elizabeth II (ashown here).
“Her life is so vast in so many ways,” Tom Jennings said by phone.
His richly detailed film, “Being the Queen,” debuts at 9 p.m. Monday (Aug. 31) on the National Geographic Channel. That follows a 7 p.m. rerun of his previous “Diana: In Her Own Words.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 26, 2020