Year: 2021

Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 26: new night for ABC, old story for Trump

1) “Mixed-ish” season-opener, 9:30 p.m., ABC. Back in 1986, Bow says, her family loved “Dukes of Hazzard” – a show about White guys eluding the police in a car with a a Confederate flag. (“1986 was a really long time ago,” she decides.) She and her siblings (shown here in a previous episode), all mixed-race, had spent their early years on a commune, where race was never an issue. Now Bow’s brother is pulling off a racial deception, in an episode that’s fairly funny and sometimes serious. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 24, 2021
Stories

King played a huge rule in CNN history

Even before there was a CNN, the world knew Larry King.
Eventually, they would entwine. For 25 years, King – who died Saturday at 87 – hosted a weeknight talk show (shown here) on CNN; at times, he was the most prominent piece of an obscure network.
“Larry King really made CNN,” anchorman Wolf Blitzer said during its coverage of King on Saturday. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 23, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 25: Laughs and deadly crises

1) “Bob (Hearts) Abishola,” 8:30 p.m., CBS. This wraps up a terrific two-parter that sees the romance wobbling. Bob and Abishola are engaged … but she hasn’t shed her marriage in her native Nigeria. Now her husband (shown here, right) is here, insisting they’ll never divorce. Strong wills collide, in a funny episode. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 23, 2021
Stories

Before COVID, a town confronted deadly threat

In the news, this was strictly a spy story.
A man and his daughter were sitting on a park bench in England, when they collapsed. He was Russian, a double agent who had worked for the British; both were hit by a lethal poison developed in Russia.
There was an international furor … but behind that was the personal story that emerges in “The Salisbury Poisonings” (shown here), which starts at 10 p.m. Monday (Jan. 25) on AMC. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 23, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 24: Brady, Batwoman and witches

1) Football, 3 p.m. ET, Fox; 6:40 p.m., CBS. The conference-championship games start with two of the all-time great quarterbacks: Aaron Rodgers (shown here) and the Packers host Tom Brady and the Bucs. Combined, those men are 80 years old and (counting post-season) have passed for 1,128 touchdowns, 333 interceptions and 50,462 yards. One will go to the Super Bowl, facing the winner of the game between the Chiefs (hoping quarterback Patrick Mahomes has recovered) and the Bills. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 22, 2021
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for Jan. 25: Cable has alien, supertrain

1) “Resident Alien” debut, 10 p.m. Wednesday, Syfy. It’s always difficult for a newcomer to fit in. So imagine if you’re from another planet (shown here), pretending to be the guy you just killed. It’s easy to disguise physically (what with shapeshifting and such), but how do you learn the attitudes? This is partly a comedy, with the Sheldon-style humor of trying to grasp the human condition. But it’s from Steven Spielberg’s company and offers sleek, science-fiction visuals, with gorgeous Vancouver backdrops. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 22, 2021
Stories

She wrestles with superhero stardom

Javicia Leslie’s childhood prepared her for three careers – wrestler, martial artist or superhero,
She abandoned one after learning the World Wrestling Federation was fake. “I really thought (it) was real …. As I got older, I realized they were acting,” she told the Television Critics Association.
But now she’s merged the other two: She’s the new star (shown here) of “Batwoman” (8 p.m. Sundays on CW), flexing some martial-arts moves. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 21, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 23: BBC has a natural high

1) “A Wild Year on Earth” (shown here), 8 p.m., BBC America. This is what BBC does magnificently – gorgeous wildlife scenes, weaved together with a grand score. The six parts will cover two months at a time. That starts with a few creatures – great horned owls (beautifully filmed) and polar bears — that are comfy in the frozen North. We also learn odd facts: Otters have nature’s thickest hair; manatees, by comparison, need warmth because (despite appearances) they lack blubber. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 21, 2021
News and Quick Comments

Yes, sitcoms are fine — mostly on Thursdays

TV keeps teetering between two extremes – comedy is king and comedy is dead.
Now we’re at the latter. Laughs are scarce … except on Thursdays, when they reach excess.
Now the best ones are back: After a four-week break, CBS’ Thursday comedies have new episodes Jan. 21. Three are very funny (including “B Positive,” shown here), one is adequate, all are welcome.
And all are in a tough time for situation comedies. As Variety, the trade paper, put it: “Three episodes of CBS’ ‘Young Sheldon’ were the only sitcoms to make this year’s list of top 100 telecasts with total viewers. Among adults 18-49, there were none.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 20, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 22: tough times for Red and Mac

1) “The Blacklist,” 8 p.m., NBC. After giving us exactly two episodes, “Blacklist” took a two-month break. At least, those two had some big moments – peaking with Red killing Liz’s mother, before she could reveal Red’s murky secrets to Liz. Now Liz is not happy; the former friendship (shown here in an earlier episode) has shattered. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 20, 2021