Year: 2022

News and Quick Comments

CNN+: quick end to a bad idea

CNN+ now goes down as one of life’s really bad ideas.
It lasted three weeks longer than the Titanic, 13 months less than the Hindenburg. No one was killed, but lots of talent (including Chris Wallace, shown here) was wasted.
Officially, the streaming service will shut down on April 30, 32 days after it began. The cause-of-death is listed as corporate confusion: Officials went ahead with the plan, fully aware that the incoming owners (Discovery) might dislike the idea; they did and shut it down instantly.
But unofficially? This was just never a good idea. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 22, 2022
News and Quick Comments

Welcome to Earth Day

This is Earth Day (Friday, April 22) and the streaming networks and PBS are busy. A separate piece (see Stories) looks at three new Disney+ shows; meanwhile, here’s a round-up:
ARRIVING TODAY (April 22)
— Three films on Disney+. “Polar Bear” (shown here) is from the DisneyNature people, whose lush films are usually in theaters the week of Earth Day. The others are from National Geographic: “Explorer: The Last Tepui” follows Alex Honnold (the climber of “Free Solo” fame), as he leads a climb up a 1,000-foot cliff, so a botanist can study an “island in the sky.” Also, “The Biggest Little Farm: The Return” revisits John and Molly Chester, city people creating an eco-friendly farm in California.
— A two-day marathon of BBC America reruns. “Planet Earth” is 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, followed by the marine-world “Planet Earth: Blue Planet II” from 5-11 p.m. They then rerun – “Planet Earth” from 11 p.m. to Saturday at 9 a.m., “Blue Planet II from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, then “Africa” from 3-8 p.m. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 22, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 24: One season ends, several begin

1) ”Masterpiece: Sanditon” season-finale, 9 p.m., PBS. The sisters are heading home with their love lives crumbling. Charlotte (shown here in a previous episode) is sorting out two angry guys; Alison was devastated by a lying soldier. Then there’s Miss Lambe” (seduced by an artist) and Esther (drugged by her step-brother); also, the soldiers are leaving without paying their bills. Some of this gets resolved, in a well-made hour that is slick and emotional, with a closing jolt. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 22, 2022
Weekly Previews

Week’s top 10 for April 25: Better Things, better football, Better Call Saul

 1) “Better Things” series-finale, 10 p.m. today, FX, rerunning at 11. A great show ends in its fashion – odd, disjointed and intermittently brilliant. If you’re not familiar with it, just relax and let it wash over you. It starts and ends with clever music videos; in between are snippets from the fictional life of Sam Fox – a lot like the real life of writer-director-star Pamela Adlon (shown here, second from left, in a previous episode. A couple of long toilet scenes could have been skipped, but the rest offers bursts of warmth, humor and human quirks. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 21, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for April 23: nature’s beauty, humans’ greed

1) Earth Day, continued. A deluge of earthly shows arrived on or before Friday; most are still available via Disney+ (including the ambitious “Polar Bear”), Netflix (including the gorgeous “Our Great National Parks”), Paramount+, Discovery+ and PBS.org. Also, BBC America wraps a two-day marathon of splendid nature reruns. “Planet Earth” (shown here) continues to 9 a.m., with “Blue Planet II” from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and “Africa” from 3-8 p.m. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 21, 2022
Stories

He fell into (sort of) the ultimate role

This is the sort of role actors might dream of.
It’s a guy who knows nothing … then, gradually, knows everything. He’s “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” in a series (shown here) debuting at 10 p.m. Sunday (April 24) on Showtime. And he’s also a master mimic.
“One of the things that was really exciting … is just the variety of it,” said Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays him. It was a giant challenge, for a guy who could have chosen a different life.
In her comedy act, Gina Yashere (the “Bob Hearts Abishola” co-creator and co-star) used to say: “In a Nigerian family, there are only four choices of jobs – doctor, lawyer, engineer, disgrace to the family.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 20, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for April 22: Savor some earthly delights

1) Earth Day films, Disney+. On most Earth Days, DisneyNature has a gorgeous film in movie theaters. Now, however, “Polar Bear” has gone straight to streaming; it’s one of three documentaries debuting today on Disney+.  “Explorer: The Last Tepui” has climber Alex Honnold (“Free Solo”) take a biologist to an untouched “island in the sky”; “The Biggest Little Farm: The Return” (shown here) follows the city folks who have made an 81-acre mini-farm into an eco-friendly success Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 20, 2022
News and Quick Comments

A very short story

While watching the “Nature” season-finale, I learned an important fact: Storks like cork trees.
There are a lot of those trees in Portugal, with the cork bark harvested every eight years. Its branches often hold giant stork nests. I learned this while catching an advance version of the episode that airs at 8 p.m. April 27 on PBS.
Then I considered writing an epic poem. It would have a stork sitting on cork with a friend from York, brandishing a fork and studying a quark. I decided not to; it would make me seem like a dork.
(The end) Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 20, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for April 21: tough times for Georgie and Paper Boi

1) “Young Sheldon,” 8 p.m., CBS. Sheldon and his sister are trying to figure out more about the family drama. It’s a big one: Their brother Georgie, 17, lied to an older woman, Mandy, about his age; now she’s pregnant. Georgie is played by Montana Jordan, 19, the lone Texas native in the main cast of a show set in Texas. Mandy (they’re shown here) is played by Emily Osment, 30, a former child star who has emerged as a skilled actress in Chuck Lorre shows – “Mom,” “The Kominsky Method” and now “Young Sheldon.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 19, 2022
Stories

Basketball added a Magic touch

As the 1980s began, Los Angles had a surplus of flash and fury.
There was movie magic, music magic and … well, regular magic. What was missing was something on the sports side; then Earvin “Magic” Johnson (shown here) joined the Los Angeles Lakers.
The result? Four decades later, “he’s still the most popular athlete in Los Angeles,” Jimmy Kimmel says in “They Call Me Magic,” the four-part documentary that debuts Friday (April 22) on Apple TV+.
Others in the film have their own adjectives. Johnson is “mythological” (Samuel L. Jackson) … His passes “make it seem like he’s clairvoyant” (Kareem Abdul-Jabar) … “He was an oxymoron; he could play any position” (former Laker Coach Pat Riley) … And “he played with such joy” (Grant Hill). Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 19, 2022