Year: 2023

Best-bets for March 12: Oscars … and plenty of alternatives

1) Academy Awards, 8 p.m. ET, ABC. We can expect some laughs; Jimmy Kimmel is host and a few presenters (Melissa McCarthy, Mindy Kaling, Julia Louis-Dreyfus) know humor. There will also be music from Rihanna, Sofia Carson, David Byrne and the actors who did “Naatu Naatu,” plus Lennie Kravitz in the “In Memoriam” segment. We’ll also see clips of nominees, some of them well-known; that includes “Top Gun: Maveric” (shown here), “Avatar: Way of the Water,” “Elvis” and “Everything, Everywhere All at Once.” Read more…

Week’s top-10 for Martch 13: lucky Hank, angry youths

1) “Lucky Hank” debut, 9 p.m. Sunday, AMC, rerunning at 10:01, 11;02, 12:03. As soon as Hank (Bob Odenkirk, shown here) unleashes his rant, we know this is special. He’s a writing professor at, he says, a mediocre college. He’s deeply flawed, but so are the other faculty members, each in a different way. His wife (Mireille Enos) is the world’s kindest vice-principal, but he’s in a perpetual funk, overshadowed by a famous father. The result ripples with great dialog. Read more…

Best-bets for March 11: movie night on Oscars eve

1) “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (shown here), 6:35 p.m., Showtime. On the eve of the Academy Awards, we can catch some of the nominees. This fantasy tale – an ordinary soul (Michelle Yeoh) whisked through multiple lives – is the Oscar leader with 11 nominations. Ke Huy Quan has swept supporting-actor wins from the Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globes and Critics Choice. Yeoh won best-actress from SAG and the Globes; the film won best picture from the critics. Read more…

In or out of prison, he was a warm dad

Tracy McMillan is an expert on life’s extremes.
She’s known the highs and the lows. The middle part – the comfy, cozy part – has been elusive.
Well, she did grow up in Minneapolis, in mid-America. And she spent several years with a warm foster family, led by a Lutheran minister.
But then she was back with her charismatic dad, whom she’s described as “a Billy Dee Williams type who committed crimes for a living.” That led to “UnPrisoned,” debuting Friday (March 10) on Hulu. Kerry Washington and Delroy Lindo (shown here) play people a lot like McMillan and her dad. The difference is that in this fictional version, he lives with her after prison. Read more…

Best-bets for March 10: Romance is tricky; so are wiretaps

1) “Grand Crew,” 8:30 p.m., NBC. In last week’s surprisingly good season-opener, Noah’s girlfriend married a friend, to avoid being deported to Canada. Now – no surprise – Noah’s relationship with his girlfriend’s husband gets complicated. Meanwhile, Noah’s sister Nicky (shown here) ponders her own romance. That follows a new “Lopez vs. Lopez,” going against CBS’ no-rerun night of “SWAT,” “Fire Country” and “Blue Bloods.” Read more…

Best-bets for March 9: Two stream gems end their seasons

1) “Poker Face” season-finale, Peacock. For nine episodes, this has been one of TV’s best shows – mixing clever mysteries and the unique persona of Natasha Lyonne (shown here). She’s Charlie, a decent soul who can tell when people are lying. In the opener, that put her in conflict with a crooked casino manager. He’s dead and she’s on the run, but now she faces his dad (Ron Perlman) and the security chief (Benjamin Bratt). “Poker Face” has a great finish … and will be back next year.
Read more…

Best-bets for March 8: Spies, laughs and agri-romance

1) “Farmer Wants a Wife” (shown here) debut, 9 p.m., Fox. The CW tried this show 15 years ago, with one farmer and lots of city-bred prospects. Now CBS tries it, with four guys. Each is college-educated and in his 30s; two raise cattle, one has horses, one has both. Also, Hunter Grayson sings in a band, Ryan Black designs and builds houses. They meet 32 women (ages 24 to 39), including two bloggers, two therapists, a bartender and a spiritual coach. Read more…

Oscar night on TV: Here’s a guide

The Academy Awards, which used to be a big deal, arrive Sunday on ABC.
And this time, they might draw some interest. They have a host, some songs, a studio audience … and some movies (including “Elvis,” shown here) people have seen.
We used to take that for granted, until things crumbled. There were two no-audience pandemic years … three no-host years … and a year with no songs during the main show. Also, nominees were obscure.
Now all of that seems to be behind us. Here’s an overview of the night; also, alongside this are two Oscar features — on front-runner Ke Huy Quan and on the oft-overlooked documentary categories: Read more…

At Oscar time, doc-makers get a fiery moment

(This is a story I posted on Jan. 28, but I thought it would be fun to bring it back now, with the Academy Award telecast coming on MRXH 12. You’ll find two other Oscar stories to the left.)
As the Academy Awards near, the nominees have a descending order of fame.
At the top this year are the stars – actors (Cate Blanchett, Angela Bassett, Judd Hirsch, etc.), a director (Steven Spielberg) and some songwriters (Lady Gaga, Rihanna). And near the bottom, every year?
“You are the lowest on the totem pole as a short-doc filmmaker,” Cynthia Wade said
That’s the short-documentary category. She won it in 2008 (for the 39-minute “Freeheld)” and had her moment on global TV, being handed an Oscar by Tom Hanks; she was nominated again in 2013. Read more…

Award shows are fun — as long as Quan wins

There are actors who accept awards casually. They smile slightly, read lethargic lists, then depart.
Then there’s Ke Huy Quan (shown here), who makes the award season worthwhile.
At previous ceremonies (Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, etc.), Quan jumped and hugged and beamed. Now he’s a front-runner at this year’s Academy Awards, at 8 p.m. ET Sunday (March 12) on ABC; so is his movie, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” and its star, Michelle Yeoh.
All of this follows a big gap. The pause in his acting career “has been for a long time,” Quan said. Read more…