Year: 2020

News and Quick Comments

TV this fall? PBS plans music, drama, zombies

As TV networks’ fall plans sputter, there’s a counterpoint:
PBS still has big plans for the season. That includes concerts (including Lea Salonga, shown here), dramas, politics, nature and whimsy.
Well, not a lot of whimsy. (This is PBS, after all.) But it will air “History of Zombies” on the eve of Halloween and visit “Santa’s Wild Home” before Christmas; it will also have a jazz tribute to “Sesame Street,” visit tropical islands and board the queen’s plane. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 26, 2020
Stories

Conspiracy theories swirl through internet

Conspiracy theories have long been lurking out there, stirring our emotions.
We’ve seen the Kennedy-assassination ideas of Oliver Stone and others; we’ve had UFO tales, billed as fiction (“X-Files”) or fact. Earlier, Joe McCarthy insisted he held the names of 205 Communist conspirators in the U.S. government.
Often, those views are nudged aside. But now, some viewers will have seen two major documentaries in five days: On Friday (July 24), CNN’s Fareed Zakaria presented “Donald Trump’s Conspiracy Theories”; at 10 p.m. Tuesday (July 28), PBS’ “Frontline” has “United States of Conspiracy,” focusing on Alex Jones (shown here). Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 26, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for July 28: “Story,” Regis, news, more

1) “Tell Me a Story,” 9 p.m., CW. After two years on CBS All Access, this gets a shot at a broadcast audience. It’s a good one, even if it doesn’t do what it claims – putting a modern twist on three fairy tales. That link is weak, but all three stories slowly seize our attention. One – with the always-terrific James Wolk (shown here) nudging his girlfriend toward marriage and family – ends the hour powerfully. The others have talented newcomers Danielle Campbell and Davi Santos in troubled lives. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 26, 2020
Stories

John Lewis tributes fill the week

John Lewis, a towering figure in civil rights, will be memorialized often in the next week.
Some reruns were already planned. The documentary “John Lewis: Get In the Way” is at pbs.org and on stations’ websites; “Legends Who Paved the Way” – a gala with Lewis and others – reruns at 11 a.m. Sunday (July 26) on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
That’s the morning when a procession will see Lewis, for one final time, cross Selma, Alabama’s Edmund Pettus Bridge – where he was beaten fiercely by police during a 1965 march. (He’s shown here at a reunion walk across the bridge.) Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 25, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for July 27: A strong — but sub-titled — night

1) “POV: Advocate,” 10 p.m., PBS (check local listings). Americans have savored stories of lawyers who make the impossible fight. Now here’s an extreme: Lea Tsemel (shown here), 75, was once a volunteer Israeli soldier, believed to be the first Jewish woman to reach the Wailing Wall. For generations, she has represented Palestinians who are accused of terrorism. “We always lose,” she once said. Still, there are slivers of triumph here. It’s a tough but solid hour, with English sub-titles. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 25, 2020
Stories

For “lost cause” rebel, the fight goes on

For Michel Warschawski, the impression was instant.
He was watching activists protest their Israeli government. Then he spotted “a short, little woman, beautiful” in mini-skirt and boots. She clanged keys and yelled curses – ”words I’d never heard before …. I was speechless.”
He promptly joined the group; a year-and-a-half later, he and Lea Tesemel started dating. Now, 50-some years later, they’re still together(shown here) — married, with two kids and seven grandkids. At 75, she’s a busy lawyer — profiled in “POV: Advocate,” at 10 p.m. Monday (July 27) on PBS (check local listings) – who keeps tackling impossible missions. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 24, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for July 26: Earp goes solo; Solo goes too

1) “Wynonna Earp” season-opener, 10 p.m., Syfy. Life gets complicated for Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano, shown here). Her great-great-grandfather Wyatt just had to face gunfighters; she’s supposed to hunt demons and dispatch them back to Hell. Last season, her half-sister Waverly was kidnapped. To find her, Wynonna must enter Eden on a stairway that’s magic and maybe invisible. There’s lots of dry humor and then a fierce demon battle. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 24, 2020
News and Quick Comments

Documentaries view race, politics and COVID

The current hot-button issues – COVID, race and politics – will be faced in four new documentaries.
Freshly added is an ABC special Tuesday, looking at the evolution of the U.S. virus crisis and interviewing Drs. Anthony Fauci and Robert Redfield and others. That joins one documentary (Sunday) on race and two (Friday and Tuesday) viewing conspiracy theories of Alex Jones as they affect politics. Details, chronologically, are: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 23, 2020
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for July 27: Basketball’s back

1) Basketball. Last week, baseball finally started; now basketball resumes, helping fill the shutdown void. It starts with doubleheaders, at 6:30 and 9 p.m. ET Thursday (TNT) and Friday (ESPN). Then ESPN tops that with four games Saturday, 1, 3:30, 6 and 8:30 p.m. ET. ABC takes over Sunday at 13:30 and 8:30 p.m. Sunday. The two league-leaders each reach TV twice: The Bucks ar 6:30 Friday (facing the Celtics) and 8:30 Sunday (Rockets); LeBron James (shown here) and the Lakers are 9 p.m. Thursday (Clippers) and 8:30 Saturday (Raptors). Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 23, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for July 25: baseball’s busy day

1) Baseball, 1:05, 4:10 and 7:15 p.m. ET, Fox. It’s the first full day of the season, the first in which all 30 teams are scheduled. Fox – which desperately needs something new this summer – celebrates with a tripleheader. The Cubs (shown here with Anthony Rizzo and Kevin Bryant) host the Brewers at 1:05 p.m., the Dodgers host the Giants at 4:10 and then – with the teams that opened the season Thursday – the Nationals host the Yankees. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 23, 2020