Year: 2022

Best-bets for March 26: It’s a busy Oscar eve

1) “Dune” (2021), 8 p.m., HBO. On the eve of the Academy Awards, we can catch some of the best-picture nominees. “Dune” (shown here) repeats at 6:15 p.m. Sunday (overlapping the Oscars, at 8 p.m. ET) and is on HBO Max, which also has “Drive My Car” and shares two others – “Nightmare Alley” (with Hulu) and “West Side Story” (with Disney+). Netflix has “Don’t Look Up” and “The Power of the Dog,” Apple TV+ has “Coda” and the others are video-on-demand. Read more…

“Halo” makes its “massive” leap to TV

For streaming networks, the impulse is clear: Go big and go fantasy.
It’s “Star Wars” on Disney+, “Star Trek” on Paramount+, the DC crowd on HBO Max and more, There’s Marvel on Disney+, “Game of Thrones” on HBO Max … and now “Halo” (shown here) on Paramount+.
Yes, the “Halo” videogame is a weekly series, starting Thursday (March 24). “It’s a daunting task,” producer Kiki Wolfkill said in a Television Critics Association virtual press conference.
And one that took forever. “You have such massive scale and scope,” said producer Justin Falvey. “It takes some time to get it right.” Read more…

Oscar Sunday: Here’s a quick overview

It took a while, but the details of this year’s Academy Award telecast are finally in place.
ne key detail – performances of the Oscar-nominated songs – wasn’t announced until Tuesday night. What emerges is a ceremony that will work hard to entertain us … unlike recent years. Details include:
WHEN: 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT) Sunday, March 27, on ABC.
HOSTS: Comedians Amy Schumer (see separate piece, under “Stories”) and Wanda Sykes, actress Regina Hall. Expect to be amused. Read more…

Best-bets for March 25: Music and basketball abound

1) “Great Performances: Conductor,” 9-10:30 p.m., PBS. “I’ve never been good with a lot of rules,” Marin Alsop (shown here) says. She quit a stern music school and created String Fever – 14 women doing swing music on orchestral instruments. She resisted the idea that conductors must be men; at one point, she led orchestras in three cities (Baltimore, Vienna, Sao Paolo), on three continents, in three languages. It’s a great story, told with surges of soaring music. Read more…

Best-bets for March 24: “Atlanta” is back and strange

1) “Atlanta” season-openers, 10 and 10:49 p.m., FX; then 11:34 p.m. and 12:34 a.m.; 1:08 and 1:58 a.m. After a four-year pause, “Atlanta” returns with an odd (but interesting) episode – a 5-minute dream scene, followed by a half-hour memory … with Donald Glover (the show’s star) not appearing until the final minute. It follows with an episode that’s semi-strange and sometimes quite funny. Earn and two friends are with Big Boi (they’re shown here), who’s on his European tour. Read more…

Will the Oscars forget (again) to entertain us?

After three straight flubs, the Academy Award telecast (9 p.m. Sunday, March 27, on ABC) will try get it right – at last.
It will have three hosts (shown here) … and music … and fewer on-air categories. It will hope viewers forget the recent years.
In those three years, Oscars were hostless and joyless. Ratings tumbled. The telecast went from 29.6 million viewers in 2019 to 23.6 million in 2020 and 10.4 million last year. Read more…

Best-bets for March 23: scary moments in fiction and fact

1) “Snowfall,” 10 p.m., FX. Until now, we thought Franklin (shown here) was fearless. Not so; lock him up next to an angry tiger – yes, a TIGER – and he becomes very concerned. The problem started last week, when he and colleagues were attacked while hauling $3 million. Now they must escape the tiger and more gunmen, then ponder the aftershocks. It’s a fierce hour, with way too much brutalizing of defenseless people, but also potent and well-made. Read more…

Serious Schumer? Funny Schumer? It’s time for both

The two sides of Amy Schumer are filling our TV time.
There’s the standup-comedy side, big and blunt and brash. That may emerge when she co-hosts (with Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall) the Academy Awards, at 8 p.m. Sunday (March 27) on ABC.
And there’s the subtle side, in the richly layered humor of her “Life & Beth,” which has just arrived on Hulu. “I actually am an introvert,” Schumer told the Television Critics Association.
Say what? Surely, this “introvert” can’t be the person who stands onstage, telling intimate details to strangers. “I could probably use a little more self-control in real life …. I’m sure I’ve shared more than some people would have cared” to hear, she said. Read more…

Best-bets for March 22: Stars sing, Pam schemes

1) “iHeartRadio Music Awards,” 8-10 p.m., Fox. The Grammys were pushed back to April 3, but here’s a temporary substitute. It even has LL Cool J – a five-time Grammy host – as host and performer. Also performing: Megan Thee Stallion, John Legend, Charlie Puth, Jason Aldean, Maneskin and more; Jennifer Lopez gets a special award. Justin Bieber and Olivia Roderigo (shown here) lead with nine and eight nominations, including male and female artist of the year. Read more…