Month: March 2022

Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for March 21: Oscars Week and more

1) Academy Awards, 8 p.m. ET Sunday, ABC. The worst is over now. For three humorless years, there was no host; last year, there was little music, no fun … and lots of time for winners to drone on, thanking agents and such. Now the Oscars try to make up for that with three hosts, two (Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes) quite funny; the third is a gifted actress, Regina Hall. Still, the early list of presenters had only a few (Chris Rock, for instance) capable of fun. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 17, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 19: the joys of chocolate and basketball

1) “Great Chocolate Showdown” (shown here) finale, 8 p.m., CW. Three pleasant-enough things – chocolate, Canada and reality-TV – combine. This Canadian show started with 10 people – half of them Americans – crafting chocolate goodies. Now it’s down to Casey Hallen from New York City, Renu Matthew from Alberta and T. Lawrence-Simon from Massachusetts. Each gets a previous contestant as an assistant, then fills a shop window with various temptations. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 17, 2022
News and Quick Comments

“Sanditon”: PBS gambled on an almost-doomed show

(“Sanditon” is finally back, after a too-long gap. A separate piece here, under “stories,” is a guide to the second season, which starts at 9 p.m. Sunday, March 20, on PBS. Alongside that, however, I thought I should repeat a previous story, talking about the show’s rescue. Here it is, slightly shortened.)
Even before “Sanditon” (shown here) 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. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 16, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 18: basketball vs. “Blacklist”

1) “The Blacklist,” 8 p.m., NBC. With basketball gobbling up CBS this weekend, hour-long crime shows are hard to find. Fortunately, “Blacklist” is back, for only its third episode in eight weeks. The task force is tracking “The Chairman,” whose dark web helps criminals trade stock-market shares. Also, Ressler is angry when Red (shown here in a previous episode) goes to extremes to find a tracking device. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 16, 2022
Stories

“Flatch”: fun from Feig, Fox and flyover folks

They’ve been called “the flyover states,” the ones that helpfully keep New York and California apart.
They’ve given us the humor of Will Rogers and Garrison Keillor, the music of Motown and Garth Brooks, the heroics of Roy Rogers and George Clooney. And now there’s “Welcome to Flatch,” a droll comedy about small-town mid-America, at 9:30 p.m. Thursdays on Fox, starting March 17.
Sam Straley (from Cincinnati) and the mono-named Holmes (from Omaha) star as young adults (shown here), not sure what happens after the school years are over. Paul Feig, from small-town Michigan, is a writer-producer. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 15, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 17: droll “Flatch” or tourney fuss

1) “Welcome to Flatch” debut, 9:30 p.m., Fox. Adapted from a British comedy, this is filled with droll, dry humor. A camera crew, we’re told, is studying small-town America. Mostly, it finds semi-empty lives – a local clergyman (Seann William Scott); his ex-wife (Aya Cash), editing the local paper; and two young people (shown here), clueless about life after high school. One wants a Scarecrow Festival prize; the other wants to be an influencer or spend time with her distant dad. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 15, 2022
News and Quick Comments

“Belfast”: the making of a movie master

At a wobbly time in a 9-year-old’s life, his grandmother has some key words.
“You’ll always be Buddy from Belfast,” she says, “no matter where you go and what you become.”
That line – from Kenneth Branagh’s autobiographic film “Belfast” (shown here) – rings true. And we have to marvel at just what the kid did become.
He became a president, a prime minister and a king. He led armies, solved mysteries, explored Antarctica and created a monster. And two opposite Branagh films are in theaters: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 14, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 16: “Alien” leaves, “Edge” arrives

1) “Resident Alien” season-finale, 9 p.m. Syfy. Desperate to keep the town’s only doctor, the mayor plans a surprise party for when Harry returns to his cabin. What he doesn’t realize is … well, “Harry” is really an alien (shown here in a previous episode) who took over the body of the real Harry – who was a crook, ducking other crooks. And “Harry” is carrying the egg of a half-alien that could hatch and start eating people. The result is a dandy mix of humor and drama, with some of the best moments centering on the mayor’s wife. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 14, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 15: Comedies start, “Bachelor” ends

1) “Young Rock” season-opener, 8 p.m. NBC. All four actors who play Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson are needed today. We see him as a kid and as a teen, idolizing a big-hearted, big-bodied dad (shown here) who has little time. We also see him trying to break into Canadian pro football. And we see him in the future, played by the real Johnson. Those scenes, with Randall Park, are fairly funny; the others are merely interesting, treading a line somewhere between comedy and drama. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 13, 2022
Stories

“Sanditon” is back … and different; here’s a guide

By all logic, there wouldn’t be a second “Sanditon” season … or even a first one.
Its author (Jane Austen) had died after barely starting the novel. Two centuries later, the production company bailed out after one season; some key actors departed.
Yet here it is, starting its second PBS season (shown here) at 9 p.m. Sunday (March 20), two years after the first one ended. A lush and popular show is back … and renewed for a third season. Here’s a guide to some sweeping changes: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 13, 2022