Year: 2023

Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Feb. 18: Re-savor “Heat,” “Magnum,” more

1) “In the Heat of the Night” (1967), 8 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies. Two of our greatest actors (shown here) collide, in a well-crafted mystery. Sidney Poitier plays a big-city homicide cop, reluctantly helping a small-town Mississippi sheriff. Rod Steiger won a well-deserved Oscar in the latter role; there were also wins for best picture and the script, score and editing. It’s a potent Black History Montgh film, followed at 10 by “To Sleep With Anger” (1990). Read more…

By Mike Hughes / February 16, 2023
News and Quick Comments

Good news: “Poker Face” is renewed

Here’s some good news for TV viewers: “Poker Face” will have a second season.
The show is still wrapping up its first season, with new episodes – terrific ones, mostly – each Thursday on Peacock, through March 9. It has received near-unanimous raves from critics.
That approval comes as no real surprise. The show pairs producer-director-writer Rian Johnson – who has Oscar nominations for both of his “Knives Out” scripts – and Natasha Lyonne (shown here), who seizes attention whenever she’s on the screen. It also revives the mystery-of-the-week format, with Charlie (Lyonne) solving crimes while she’s on the lam. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / February 15, 2023
News and Quick Comments

Picard ends a 35-year mission … maybe

By now, Patrick Stewart knows this “Star Trek” thing is more than a brief blip in his life.
It’s been, he said, “35 years since I first put on the captain’s uniform …. The world has changed and I have changed too.”
Or not. As “Star Trek: Picard” (shown here with Stewart and LeVar Burton) begins what it calls its final season (Thursdays on Paramount+, starting Feb. 16), he’s remained a potent performer of British classics. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / February 15, 2023
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Feb. 16: comedy, cooking and more

1) “Animal Control,” 9 p.m., Fox. This is a solid formulas for big laughs – frisky ostriches, a nasty weasel and Joel McHale. An ex-cop working animal-control, McHale’s character is a darkly acerbic soul, partnered with a cheerful ex-snowboarder. (They’re shown here.) His workplace includes a sexy single, a reluctant homebody (Ravi Patel), a charmingly clumsy clerk (Vella Lovell of “Mr. Mayor”) and more. The result is a fun blend of sharp dialog and big sight gags. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / February 14, 2023
Stories

Life is sunny again for “Magnum” fans

For a while, “Magnum P.I.” fans were perplexed.
Their show – seemingly a ratings success – was ending. And then it wasn’t.
Then again, the shows stars were also confused. “It was a shock that the show was going to go away in the first place,” Jay Hernandez said. “I was genuinely just confused as to why. (Then) I was surprised that it found another home.”
That’s on NBC, which has an all-Magnum night this Sunday (Feb. 19). Reruns from the CBS days are at 7 and 8 p.m., with new episodes at 9 (shown here) and 10. Eric Guggenheim, the producer, said he kind of knew the show would continue somewhere. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / February 13, 2023
News and Quick Comments

Super Sunday was stuffed (overstuffed?) with stars

This Super Bowl will forever be remembered as The Night of a Kajillion (or so) Stars.
Not on the field (although there were some there, too), but in the commercials — including John Travolta, shown here.
In the past, many of the best Super Bowl commercials have been star-free. They had real horses or fake frogs or whatever. But this year, no one wanted to risk that. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / February 13, 2023
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Feb. 15: Masks first, then an ABC surge

1) “The Masked Singer” opener, 8 p.m., Fox. In its first eight seasons, this show has unmasked some terrific talents – Jewel, Jennifer Holliday, Wayne Brady, Chris Daughtry, etc. — and some others, from Rudy Giuliani to Dog the Bounty Hunter and Larry the Cable Guy. Now the opener (shown heree), Fox says, will introduce three more; two will be unmasked and one will be nudged ahead.
Read more…

By Mike Hughes / February 13, 2023
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Feb. 14: Love, laughs and rap

1) “Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World,” 9 p.m., PBS. After a strong start Jan. 31, this three-parter skipped a week because of the State of the Union address. Now the mid-section starts in 1980s New York, with cocaine and AIDS, but also a strong rap scene — peaking in 1990 with Spike Lee’s epic video (shown here) of Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power.” Then the film leaps to Los Angeles, where fierce police action spurred the “gangsta rap” era. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / February 12, 2023
Stories

In a changing world, meet-cute rom-coms persist

Twice a year – at Christmas and Valentine time – TV has a romantic-comedy immersion.
Some elements persist in most films. “There’s nothing better than a meet-cute in a rom-com,” said Jonah Feingold, writer-director of “At Midnight,” which has just arrived on Paramount+.
Tben there’s the meet-angry. As Monica Barbaro (shown here with “At Midnight” star Diego Boneta) put it: “We love rom-coms where two characters do not like each other at first …. It’s almost like they are fighting their feelings.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / February 11, 2023