1) “NCIS: Los Angeles” season-opener, 10 p.m., CBS. The 14th season begins with another crisis for Sam and Callen (shown here in a previous episode): Someone has bombed a building where combat drones were assembled. The team must find out who did it … while also dealing with troubling news about a body found in Syria. Read more…
It’s not quite a sign of the apocalypse, but it might be close:
A reality-TV guy has been put in charge of the Fox network.
Rob Wade – who supervised Fox’s reality shows and specials – takes over as the CEO, it was announced today (Oct. 6). He replaces Charlie Collier, who moved on to run Roku, after a run in which a few scripted shows — “The Simpsons” (shown here) and “9-1-1” — prospered and most wobbled. Read more…
Actors hardly ever quote Al Pacino when discussing a Lifetime movie.
Alicia Witt (shown here in a previous role) can do that. Her career has been that varied.
Her latest film, is “The Disappearance of Cari Farver,” at 8 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 8) and 6 p.m. a week later (Oct. 15) on Lifetime. It’s a true-crime tale that takes her character through some sharp twists; “I was kind of bouncing off my seat when I got to the end” of the script, she said.
Early in her career, this might have wracked her. But at 31 she did “88 Minutes” with Pacino. Read more…
1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. Maybe we worried too much about which stars had left; we should have fretted about writers leaving. Except for “Weekend Update,” last week’s season-opener was short on wit. This material couldn’t have been saved by Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant … or even by Belushi or Murray or Wiig and such. Let’s hope it improves now, with Brendan Gleeson as host and Willow (shown here), formerly Willow Smith, as music guest. Read more…
1) “Masterpiece” mysteries, 8-11 p.m. Sunday, PBS. After a sluggish start last month, this night has three openers. “Miss Scarlet and the Duke” (shown here) is light and bright at 8 p.m., with Eliza on a missing-person case with a twist. “Annika” (10) has a smart story, complicated by Scottish accents. In between, “Magpie Murder” (9) is special – a six-parter juggling two mysteries: Who killed the author? And who is the killer in the missing chapter of his book? Read more…
1) “Fire Country” debut (shown here), 9 p.m., CBS. In a year when wildfires have ripped through California, that provides a backdrop for this solid series. Bode (Max Thieriot of “SEAL Team”) is a prisoner who joins the firefighters to shorten his sentence – then is sent to the town where his troubles began. This opener requires a mountain of coincidences, but mixes strong drama with blazing action. Read more…
Two unrelated events recently washed past me, somehow tying together.
One was the death of Loretta Lynn (shown here), who died today (Oct. 4) at 90, peacefully in her bed. She wrote and sang great country stories … and lived a greater one. Try to catch the wonderful movie “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and/or PBS’ “American Masters” portrait of Lynn. Both tell how she became a wife at 13, a mother at 14, a grandmother at 31 — while emerging as a Nashville star.
(Only recently. that legend was modified. The real numbers, apparently, were 16, 17 and 34; three years were subtracted, adding to the mystique.)
And the other, oddly, was “Kevin Can F Himself.” I was watching a screener of the season-finale, which airs at 9 p.m. Monday (Oct. 10) on AMC. Read more…
1) “Alaska Daily” debut, 10 p.m., ABC. This could become the next great broadcast-network drama. The opener is pretty good; next week’s hour – extending these stories and adding a new one –is superb. Tom McCarthy won an Oscar for his “Spotlight” script, based on a real newspaper investigation; now another real newspapers probe is the root here. Hilary Swank (shown here, right), a double Oscar-winner, plays a star reporter, taking her tarnished career to Anchorage. Read more…
Imagine that you’re a Van Peebles – smart, charismatic, almost absurdly handsome.
Many possible careers loom, but there’s the obvious one – be a movie or TV star.
Mandela Van Peebles (shown here with his dad) went that route. “I graduated college and I tried getting a regular job,” he said. “And I just thought, ‘Wow, that was really hard!’”
So he got an irregular job, as an actor. Now he co-stars in “Reginald the Vampire,” which debuts at 10 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 5) on Syfy, after the “Chucky” season-opener at 9. Read more…
1) “The Real Love Boat” debut, 9 p.m., CBS. For 10 seasons, “Love Boat” had fictional romances and more. Now the title is revived for a dating show. It starts with a dozen singles, including a nurse, a teacher, a firefighter and a shoe-designer. They cruise to Barcelona, Rome and more, adding and subtracting people along the way. Jerry O’Connell and Rebecca Romijn, married for 15 years, host and the real-life captain, social director and barttender (shown here) are regulars. Read more…
