1) “Nature,” 8 p.m., PBS. Here’s a fresh approach, centering on a tree that prospered for five centuries in the Scottish highland. The hour imagines the natural history around it and adds some human history – farmers, rebels, even the future Queen Mary. The notion is a stretch, but it offers gorgeous scenes (the generic Scottish scene here isn’t from the show), plus insights into evolving nature. Read more…
PASADENA — On the way to becoming a TV star and producer, Melissa Rauch (show here) was strongly impacted by laundry appliances – twice.
Really. These days, she stars in the revived “Night Court” (8 p.m. Tuesdays, NBC, starting Jan. 17), a show she and her husband willed into existence, in the midst of a pandemic and a baby boom.
But long before that, there were times when she scrambled for comedy gigs. “There were stand-up nights in a laundromat,” she recalled. “People would be doing their laundry next to you.”
And much earlier, Rauch found herself being mocked for her height, or lack thereof. Her mother’s suggestion was to have fun with it; they concocted a story: “I would tell people that I was playing hide-and-seek in the dryer and someone accidentally turned it on.” It was a clever notion that, alas, backfired: “Now I was the weird kid who shrunk in the dryer.” Read more…
1) “Night Court” debut (shown here), 8 and 8:30 p.m., NBC. This blends key pieces of past comedy hits: There’s “Night Court” and John Larroquette, who won four Emmys as Dan Fielding, before withdrawing from consideration. And there’s Melissa Rauch, who was Bernadette on “The Big Bang Theory.” Now she plays the daughter of Judge Harry Stone, taking over his courtroom … and luring Fielding back. The result is big and broad and, often enough, quite funny. Read more…
1) “Bob (Hearts) Abishola” return, 8:30 p.m., CBS. After missing last week (because of the all-night “NCIS” crossover), one of TV’s best comedies has its first new episode in six weeks. When we left it, Abishola was fretting: Bob mortgaged the house to finance a risky step, moving sock-production back to Detroit. Now there’s a new dispute on whether Dele (shown here with Bob) should be driving. Read more…
1) “Night Court” debut, 8 and 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, NBC. Here are key pieces of past comedy hits: There’s “Night Court” and John Larroquette, who won four straight Emmys as Dan Fielding, before withdrawing from consideration. And there’s Melissa Rauch – Bernadette on “The Big Bang Theory” – playing the new judge. She wants Fielding back (they’re shown here) — but this time handling the defense. The result is big and broad … and, at times, quite funny Read more…
The TV world keeps transforming. Streamers soar; broadcast networks stumble.
But what about all of those in-between – the basic channels that come free to cable subscribers?
“The basic-cable business is really struggling to compete,” John Landgraf, whose FX domain includes the upcoming “Snowfall” (shown here) told the Television Critics Association. “I think FX sand AMC are kind of holding the fort right now.”
Both looked potent in his staff’s tabulation of critics’ top-10 lists for 2022. FX was No. 2, trailing only the HBO Max streamer; AMC had the No. 1 individual show – the final season of “Better Call Saul.” And both had impressive lineups to show the TCA: Read more…
1) Critics Choice Awards, 7-10 p.m., CW. Five days after the Golden Globes, here’s another show honoring the best in movies and TV. This one is hosted by Chelsea Handler, with Jeff Bridges getting a lifetime award. Best-movie nominees include the “Top Gun” and “Avatar” sequels. plus “Elvis” (shown here), “Tar” “Fabelmans,” “Glass Onion,” “Babylon,” “RRR,” “Women Talking,”“The Banshees of Inishien” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Read more…
These days, Ramon Rodriguez’s world is all about crimesolving.
On “Will Trent” (shown here), at 10 p.m. Tuesdays on ABC, he stars as a cop with many minuses – dyslexia, rough childhood, stern surface – and one great plus: He seems to see everything, listen to everyone.
“I wanted him to be a believable, multi-faceted man,” novelist Karin Slaughter said. Many readers “really love him and think he’s sexy, … because he listens to women.”
But for years, Rodriguez’s life had nothing to do with this. “I didn’t want to be an actor …. Basketball was my biggest passion,” he told the Television Critics Association. Read more…
1) Football, 4:30 p.m. ET, Fox; and 8:15 p.m., NBC. The college season has finally finished, but the pros are just starting their play-offs. That starts now with San Francisco (shown here) hosting Seattle and then Jacksonville hostingh the Los Angeles Chargers. There are three more games Sunday, plus Monday Night Football. The six winners will then join the two top-seeded teams; all will be two wins from the Super Bowl. Read more…
Americans now have one more choice in their +-filled lives.
They’ve already confronted Disney+, Paramount+, Discovery+, AMC+ and, for a brief blip, CNN+. Now – starting Sunday (Jan. 15) – they have MGM+.
This one has a flashier name than most. (MGM is “one of the most venerable and beloved brands in the history of our industry,” claimed Michael Wright, the MGM+ president; one of its first new shows, “Murf the Surf,” shown here, reflects ’60s-style pizzaz.) It also has a smaller impact; unlike some of its plus-pals, it:
— Is a new name for an existing service, Epix. Read more…
