Mike Hughes

Stories

A decade later, she’s finally a “Last of Us” star

Wise souls knew Kaitlyn Dever would be in “The Last of Us.”
They just didn’t know when it would be or whom she would play.
As a teen, Dever did a script-reading for a “Last of Us” movie. She would star as Ellie, the young survivor of a global apocalypse.
That project faded, then returned as one of the most expensive shows in TV history. And its second season (starting 9 p.m. Sunday, April 13, on HBO) has Dever, now 28, as Abby, a skilled and vengeful soldier.
“To have it come back around, like 10-plus years later, felt surreal,” she said. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 8, 2025
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for April 10: a big day for Matty and Elsbeth

1) “Matlock,” 9 p.m., CBS. Last week ended with a jolt: Olympia learned Matty has been lying to her. Now she demands the truth; that brings a tense hour, reminding us that Kathy Bates (shown here) is a gifted, Oscar-winning actress. Can Matty salvage the friendship? Can she find who buried the vital study? That will be settled (partly) in next week’s season-finale. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 8, 2025
News and Quick Comments

Acorn adds three continents of crimesolving

The Acorn streamer – specializing in British-type mysteries – has a busy stretch of shows and news.
For now, it has three movie-length episodes of “The Chelsea Detective” (shown here in a previous season). After that are six episodes of the long-running “Brokenwood Mysteries.”
And further away? Acorn has signed Brooke Shields for a series that – in a break from Acorn tradition –will be set in the U.S. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 7, 2025
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for April 9: fun crime, serious musicals

1) “Good Cop/Bad Cop” season-finale, 9 p.m., CW. This first season has been way too short (eight episodes), but sharp and fun. Far from her role as Blair Waldorf in “Gossip Girl,” Leighton Meester plays a savvy cop, working with her smart-but-loopy brother (Luke Cook, shown here with Meester) for their dad, the police chief. Now an old case could rip the small town apart. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 7, 2025
Stories

Out of the gloom came a comedy golden age

(This is the 14th chapter of the book-in-progress, “Television, and How It Got That Way.” To read at all (so far) in order, click “News and Quick Comments” and scroll to the headline that starts, “The Book.”)

At times, TV people decide that situation comedies are doomed. One such time came seven years before “Seinfeld” (shown here) would start a comedy comeback.
In the 1984-85 season, “Dallas” and “Dynasty” were at the top; two more soaps (“Knots Landing” and “Falcon Crest”) were in the top 10. Viewers watched light action (“A-Team,” “Magnum,” “Riptide”), but not comedies: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 7, 2025
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for April 8: a funky, rootsy night

1) “We Want the Funk,” 9-10:30 p.m., PBS. “Music was our freedom,” Questlove says in this vibrant documentary. And most free of all was the funk sound. Rippling with great clips, this spans generations. It focuses heavily on James Brown, but also has music masters (from George Clinton, shown here, to Kirk Franklin) still around to vividly tell their story. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 6, 2025
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for April 7: basketball vs. “Idol,” “Paradise”

1) Basketball, 8:30 p.m. ET, CBS, with preview at 8. A no-upset tournament concludes. For the first time in 17 years, each team seeded No. 1 in a quadrant reached the final four. There’s no Cinderella team, no Butler or Bradley or Texas Tech or beyond. Instead, Duke, Florida, Auburn and Houston collided Saturday, with the winners tonight. Other networks will be quiet tonight — except for ABC, with “Idol” and (shown here) “Paradise.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 5, 2025
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for April 6: Americas and England’s Elton

1) “An Evening With Elton John and Brandi Carlile0” (shown here), 8 p.m. CBS. After hearing John’s music, Carlile taught herself to play the piano. Now the two have shared an Oscar nomination (for the song “Never Too Late”) and an album. In this hour, at London’s Palladium Theatre, they do songs from the album, plus his hits; they also pause for a conversation. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 4, 2025
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for April 7: Basketball ends; “Last of Us” returns

1) Basketball, 8:30 p.m. ET today, CBS. A no-upset year concludes. For the first time in 17 years (and, reportedly, the second in tourney history), each team seeded No. 1 in a quadrant reached the final four. There’s no Cinderella team, no Butler or Bradley or Texas Tech. Instead, Florida, Duke (shown here), Auburn and Houston collided Saturday, with the winners tonight. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 3, 2025
Stories

A smart Smart shows finds new crises

Amid the swirling complications of “Hacks,” there’s a familiar theme.
“Be careful what you wish for,” Jean Smart said.
In the fourth season (starting Thursday, April 10, on Max), Deborah Vance (Smart) has her wish – a latenight talk show. It’s he dream of many comedians, except ….
Joan Rivers – the real-life person sometimes compared to the fictional Deborah – did get her own talk show. It failed and her life sagged.
That might not happen on “Hacks,” but things won’t be easy. “It’s the pressure,” Smart said. It “gets to her.”
Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 3, 2025