Day: December 30, 2021

Stories

“All Creatures”: a small, sweet pleasure

Nicholas Ralph, it seems, is a lot like the rest of us.
Yes, he’s a TV star. In “All Creatures Great and Small” – the gentle pleasure that starts its second season at 9 p.m. Sunday (Jan. 9) on PBS – he has the lead role of James. But as a viewer, he keeps wishing James would express his feelings to Helen. (They’re shown here.)
“I was screaming at the telly, ‘Say something’ …. I hope that’s how an audience feels when they watch it,” Ralph said, in a virtual press conference with the Television Critics Association. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 30, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 1: Year begins with parade, bowls, more

1) Rose Parade, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET, NBC and ABC. Every year should start with the giddy flash of a parade. The Rose Parade (shown here in a previous year) was canceled last year, but now it expects 20 bands, 40 floats and lots of horses. LeAnn Rimes does an opening song; LeVar Burton – who was a University of Southern California student when he got the “Roots” lead, 45 years ago – is grand marshal. It’s the 95th year NBC covers it on radio or TV; Chrissy Metz and Susan Kelechi Watson (“This Is Us”) do commentary. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 30, 2021
News and Quick Comments

Three agree: “West Side Story” triumphs

Chances are, few things in this universe will draw unanimous agreement from People magazine, arts critic Ken Glickman and me.
Here’s one that does: Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” (shown hee) is a triumph, well worth seeing.
Those sources are quite different. The magazine worries about whom Jennifer Aniston is dating; Ken doesn’t. He’s a classical conductor/critic; I’m just a writer who sometimes succumbs to alliteration.
Ken and I did once agree that the Stratford theater summer had one great musical and one bad one. We just didn’t agree on which was which. But now comes a movie most people can savor: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 30, 2021