Month: March 2021

Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 11: “Coronaversary” alters schedules

1) “Coronaversary.” It was a year ago today that the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. Now Joe Biden plans a speech at 8 p.m. ET; in Eastern and Central time zones, the networks will nudge their schedules back 20-30 minutes. That’s on a big night for ABC (shown here), when its dramas return. And a “Jimmy Kimmel Live: Coronaversary Show” is set for about 11:55 p.m. ET on ABC. Pete Buttigieg, who guest-hosted the show a year ago, will be there, with Kimmel, Joel McHale and music guest Adam Duritz. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 9, 2021
Stories

Alanis transforms again … this time, into a cartoon

Alanis Morissette’s life seems to be in perpetual transition.
She was a tween, doing peppy dance songs. And a teen, writing songs of pain and rage. And a grown-up, at the top of the music world. And a latecomer to Broadway success.
And now? “I watch animated shows … a lot,” said Morissette, 46. “I have a 10-year-old son and that’s mostly what we do.”
She also co-stars in one of those shows. In “The Great North” (8:30 p.m. Sundays on Fox), she plays herself (appearing inside the aurora borealis, shown here, in the Alaskan sky), chatting with a teen girl. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 8, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 10: Fox fun and “P.D.” power

1) “Chicago P.D.,” 10 p.m., NBC. Easily the best of NBC’s three Chicago dramas, “P.D.” sometimes surprises us with a great episode. It did that at the end of last season, when Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins, shownhere) reported on a bad cop; now it finds a way to isolate him with Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) and a White cop arrested for shooting a Black student. Here are the show’s best characters – one Black, one White, both fiercely honest but with differing perspectives. The result is beautifully written and acted. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 8, 2021
Stories

“Masked Singer” returns, illusions and all

“The Masked Singer”is back, with its layers of illusion.
The performers (shown here in a previous season) are masked, the voices are altered and the studio audience is make-believe.
“We want to give people something that takes them away from the reality,” Robin Thicke said.
That reality is COVID-scarred. Performers sing to an empty theater; Nick Cannon, the host, was replaced by Niecy Nash for the already-taped first half of the season (8 p.m. Wednesdays on Fox, starting March 10), after he tested positive. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 7, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 9: Hospital dramas rule the night

1) “New Amsterdam,” 10 p.m., NBC. Last week’s season-opener took us to a post-pandemic time, with remnants of the tragedy. Now Dr. Kapoor (shown here with Max in a previous episode) lingers near death, while Elia (his son’s ex-girlfriend) nears the birth of her baby and his grandchild. Meanwhile, Iggy bares his pain and Max’s opioid rules have backfired. It’s a busy – sometimes too busy – hour that stumbles, but ends with steong emotions. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 7, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 8: Mondays become sci-fi turf

1) “Snowpiercer,” 9 p.m., TNT, rerunning at 10. Most humans have already been killed by the bitter cold. Now the few survivors – on a thousand-plus-car train – have added to the toll; Till and Layton (shown here in a previous episode) investigate the latest murders. This hour is dark and downbeat – even for an apocalyptic thriller – but sharply crafted. It also finds people worrying about Miss Audrey: Ostensibly on a date with Mr. Wilford, she planned to plant a listening device. Now she hasn’t returned. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 6, 2021
Stories

Working for Oprah has its benefits

There’s an added benefit to doing an Oprah Winfrey Network show: You might meet Oprah Winfrey.
Well, maybe not a three-dimensional, in-person Oprah, during this social-distancing era. But there’s her image, talking to you on your computer screen.
“It was like some angel landed in the Zoom,” said Maahra Hill (shown here), who has the title role in “Delilah,” at 9 p.m. Tuesdays (starting March 9) on OWN.
Jill Marie Jones, who co-stars, recalled the first such Zoom call: “She had her Oprah voice that was just so golden goodness. And then she said my name in her Oprah voice and I just died.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 6, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 7: royals who fled, moms who robbed

1) “Oprah With Meghan and Harry,” 8-10 p.m., CBS. Exactly a year ago, Meghan Markle had her last official duty in the royal family. She and her husband, Prince Harry (they’re show here), have since moved to the U.S. and become financially independent. Their son Archie turns 2 on May 6; their third anniversary is May 19. This Valentine’s Day, they announced that Markle is pregnant. Now this special – scheduled for 90 minutes, then expanded – has her conversing with Oprah Winfrey; then they’re joined by Harry. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 5, 2021