Year: 2020

News and Quick Comments

Boseman’s films offered quality and variety

(Disney’s grand gesture — showing “Black Panther on ABC, commercial free, as a tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman — has ended now, but plenty of other Boseman films are available. Here’s the story I posted Saturday and updated Sunday.)
The flow of tributes to the late Chadwick Boseman now includes an unprecedented one:
At 8 p.m. today (Sunday, Aug. 30), ABC will show his “Black Panther” movie commercial-free. That will be followed by a special – “Chadwick Boseman — Tribute For a King” – from 10:20 to 11 p.m.
Boseman played the king of a fictional African land in “Black Panther,” but he also played real-life heroes – Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall – and music superstar James Bown.
He had a six-year stretch of great movie roles. Now we learn that for four of those years, he was fighting colon cancer.
He died at 43 on Friday (Aug. 28), which happened to be Jackie Robinson Day for Major League Baseball. In the days ahead, viewers can catch his work on TV and via streaming. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 29, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Aug. 31: Gorgeous planet, eternal queen

1) “Planet Earth: A Celebration” (shown here), 8-9:25 p.m. ET, BBC America and IFC; 8-9:25 p.m. ET/PT AMC and Sundance. This began with two great series – “Planet Earth II” and “Blue Planet II.” The BBC chose eight gorgeous segments and added new music, performed by the members of the BBC Orchestra (separated by six feet) and Hans Zimmer (separated by the Atlantic Ocean). The moments – from hilarious parading flamingos to horrifying racer snakes – are brilliantly crafted. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 29, 2020
Stories

Conventions are over; take a breath … then rush

For a moment, TV people can pause for breath. It’s post-conventions rehab time.
The two parties have had their virtual gatherings. (The Republican finale is shown here.) People can worry about something else now … briefly. Coming soon are:
– Town halls, with candidates talking to undecided voters. ABC has set Donald Trump for Sept. 15; it has invited Joe Biden for a separate night.
– Debates. They’re set for Sept. 29, Oct. 15 and Oct. 22; the vice-presidential debate is Oct. 7. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 29, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Aug. 30: For one night, MTV soars again

1) MTV Video Music Awards, 8 p.m., everywhere. This sprawls across the cable world — MTV, VH1, CMT, BET, Nickelodeon, TV Land, Pop, Paramount, Comedy Central and, for the first time, CW. Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande (shown here) – who lead with nine nominations apiece – combine for “Rain on Me”; BTS has the TV debut of “Dynamite.” Also performing: Miley Cyrus, The Weeknd, DaBaby, Black Eyed Peas, CNCO, Maluma, Doja Cat and more. Keke Palmer hosts the night, which has a New York tribute. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 28, 2020
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for Aug. 31: This is non-fiction’s time

1) “Planet Earth: A Celebration” (shown here), 8-9:25 p.m. ET today, BBC America and IFC, 8-9:25 p.m. ET/PT AMC and Sundance. Consider this as an end-of-summer bonus. Picking through two great series (“Planet Earth II” and “Blue Planet II”), this chose eight gorgeous segments and added new music. There are hilarious moments, as pink flamingos parade … and horrifying ones, as racer snakes chase baby iguanas. And ones that let us marvel at leaping fish, gulping whales and a camouflaging octopus. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 28, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Aug. 29: Great films — one intense, one fun — top the night

1) “On the Waterfront” (1954) and “North by Northwest” (1959), 6 and 8 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies. These truly great movies that have nothing in common … except Eva Marie Saint. “Waterfront” is black-and-white, intense and maybe the best-acted movie ever. Marlon Brando and Saint got Oscars; Rod Steiger, Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb were nominated. “Northwest” is simply fun, a colorful Alfred Hitchcock romp that has Cary Grant, Saint and classic chase scenes,including the one shown here. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 27, 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