Month: January 2022

Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Feb. 2: “celebrities,” curlers and pumas

1) “Celebrity Big Brother” debut, 8 p.m., CBS. Well, semi-celebrities, anyway. The line-up includes Khloe Kardashian’s ex-husband (Lamar Odom), Travis Barker’s ex-wife (Shanna Moakler), Justin Timberlake’s ex-bandmate (Chris Kirkpatrick), John Mellencamp’s daughter (Teddi, shown heere) and Gary Coleman’s TV brother (Todd Bridges). Joined by former champs (fighter Miesha Tate, skater Mirai Nagasu) and others, their show will continue most days, through Feb. 23. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 31, 2022
Stories

After changes and scrambles, “Sanditon” returns

Even before “Sanditon” reached America two years ago, PBS had a dilemma.
Like virtually everything on “Masterpiece Theatre,” this was a global project, with a British network paying more and getting it first. And that network had already decided not to do a second season.
“We knew that (it) had been canceled before it even aired on ‘Masterpiece,’” Susanne Simpsons, the “Masterpiece” producer, said in a Television Critics Association virtual press conference.
The new season (shown here) finally returns March 20, but she was taking a chance: If there never was a second year, characters would have been left hanging; viewers would have been bitter. Since this is based on a novel that Jane Austen had barely started before her death in 1817, they couldn’t check a book to see how it ends. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 30, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Feb. 1: One Fox show scores, another vanishes

1) “The Resident” return, 8 p.m., Fox. After a seven-week break, here’s a big hour, complete with three potent stories. Two had started previously – Dr. Bell’s secret ailment and Dr. Austin’s mother’s cancer. Now a third has a personal link for Conrad. There’s more — Devon’s clinical trial, a new doctor (shown here with Conrad) with an elusive past – in a packed hour. Despite a few excesses, it’s well-crafted and moving. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 30, 2022
News and Quick Comments

“Monarch” bumped to fall

In a move that seems more like 2020 than 2022, Fox has delayed a major show for at least a half-year, blaming Covid.
The network had planned a big start for “Monarch,” a country-music drama starring Trace Adkins, Anna Friel and Susan Sarandon (shown heere). It would start right after the NFC championship game Sunday (Jan. 30), then settle into a spot at 9 p.m. Tuesdays. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 29, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 31: gilded lives, frozen lives and Covid agony

1) “Help,” any time, www.acorn.tv. Here is one of the finest performances you’ll ever see … if you decide to see it. “Help” is a rugged ride, battering the characters and the viewers. But it also has work that’s amazing in its subtlety and depth. Jodie Comer, 28, plays Sarah, trying to steady a teetering life by working in a nursing home; Stephen Graham, 48, plays Tony, with early-onset Alzheimer’s. (They’re shown here.) It’s late in 2019 and worlds are about to implode in deeply moving ways. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 29, 2022
News and Quick Comments

Comer leads Liverpool’s compelling film

Maybe this should become a tradition: Once every 55-plus years, people from Liverpool make a terrific movie called “Help.”
The first was in 1965, by the Beatles; it’s a delight that someone could watch over and over.
And the second debuted on British TV in September and reaches an American streamer (www.acorn.tv) on Monday (Jan. 31). It’s brilliantly crafted … and difficult to watch even once.
This “Help” was filmed mostly in Liverpool. It projects that city’s working-class feel, with Liverpool natives as its stars – Stephen Graham, Ian Hart and, especially, Jodie Comer (shown here). Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 28, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 30: Super Bowl spots at stake

1) Football, 3 p.m. ET, CBS, and 6:30, Fox. Now we’ll learn who will be in the Super Bowl. First is a battle of young quarterbacks: The Chiefs (14-5) and Patrick Mahomes, 26, already have one Super Bowl win; they face Joe Burrow, 25, and the Bengals, hoping to continue their two-year leap from 2-14 to 12-7. Then the veterans take over. Jimmy Garoppolo, 30, and the 49ers (12-7), face the Rams (14-5) and Matthew Stafford (shown here), 33, who had never won a play-off game until this year. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 28, 2022
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for Jan. 31: Olympics loom large

1) Olympics opening ceremony, 6:30 a.m. ET Friday, NBC, Peacock, Olympic Channel; then 8 p.m., NBC. In 2008, Beijing had a spectacular Summer Olympics ceremony (shown here), with 15,000 performers and a reported $100-million budget. Now it becomes the first city to host the summer and winter games. This ceremony has the same director, in the same building, but with a smaller scale. About 3,000 performers are expected, plus 2,900 athletes from 90 countries. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 27, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 29: from comedy to Gandhi

1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. For the next three weekends, the Olympic will gobble up NBC. So we might as well savor tonight, wrapping up a string of three new “SNL” episodes. The host, Willem Dafoe, has rarely been thought of as a funny guy; he’s 66 and had never done the show until last week’s brief visit. The starpower comes from Katy Perry (shown here), with her fourth turn as music guest. Perry, who also hosted once, has a new “American Idol” season starting Feb. 27. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 27, 2022
News and Quick Comments

Fox unmasks its March makeover

TV viewers now have an answer to a frequent question: When will “The Masked Singer” return?
They also have the answer to a rarely asked question: When will there be a show about people toppling dominos?
Both will be March 9, as part of the Fox network’s spring makeover. That also puts the two “9-1-1” shows back together, returns some reality shows (“MasterChef Junior” and “Name That Tune”) and debuts a clever, offbeat comedy after “Call Me Kat.”
Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 27, 2022