Stories

Stay or go? The question propels a strong series

Sterlin Harjo had achieved an elusive goal – being an independent filmmaker.
Alongside the usual projects (documentaries, shorts, a few TV episodes), he had made three scripted movies. Each, he said, got “good reviews from the critics who saw it – which are, like, maybe five.”
Then “Reservation Dogs” (shown here) happened … and the number was much higher than five. “The first season was featured on more than 80 critics’ year-end best lists,” said John Solberg of FX,
FX makes the show – with an all-Native cast and crew — for Hulu, which has just started streaming the second season. The first won awards — including Peabody and American Film Institute– and is nominated for two more (best comedy and best new show) by the Television Critics Association. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 4, 2022

Stories

FX conquers our inner demon

As the summer slows down, people start looking for TV shows – preferably ones with scripts and plots and characters and such.
Not to worry; a surge of FX productions is coming, ranging from a demonic animate show (shown here) to a therapist held hostage. “We’re just about doubling the output,” John Landgraf told the Television Critics Association.
Landgraf used to oversee shows for one channel, FX. Some of them – “Fargo,” “Pose,” “Justified,” “Sons of Anarchy”– became classics. Now he pushes shows in three directions; the surge includes: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 3, 2022

Stories

He’s no MD, but he’s doing fine

In a tiny town in West Virginia, Pauline Gates was clear about this: Her two sons would be doctors.
One, Dr. Paul Gates, is, indeed, an oral surgeon. But the other descended into academia and fame.
That’s Henry Louis Gates Jr. (shown here), who is now one of PBS’ biggest stars. “It was a fantasy of mine,” Gates said. “I didn’t even realize that it was; I didn’t tell anybody.”
But here he is, filling our TV sets. PBS has been re-running his “Finding Your Roots” at 8 p.m. Tuesdays; it will have a fresh batch in January. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 30, 2022

Stories

PBS: It’s not young and wild, but sorta trying

As reporters waited for PBS’ virtual press conferences to begin, a pop song boomed out. Over and over (18 times in all) the Strumbellas declared: “I’m young and wild.”
An interesting song choice. “Young” and “wild” are things we keep assuming that PBS people are not.
By image, at least, PBS viewers are old and tame and secretly English. They watch “Antique Roadshow,” conduct antique lives and grumble about Sundays without “Downton Abbey.” Their hero (David Attenborough, 96) would even be considered elderly on CBS.
That image, however, collides with the PBS shows and goals. The network is often diverse — from Chuck D (shown here) to a Mexican-American cartoon heroine — and occasionally youthful. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 29, 2022

Stories

“Frontline” stays in its wartime mode

When the war in Ukraine (shown here) began, “Frontline” did a quick pivot.
“We knew right away” that this had to be a new focus, Raney Aronson-Rath, the series producer, told the Television Critics Association.
One result – “Ukraine: Life Under Russia’s Attack — airs at 10 p.m. Tuesday (Aug. 2). Two others have already aired, with two more on the way. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 28, 2022

Stories

On a steamy summer, nature and “Crawdads” soothe

As cities steam and suburbs stew, it’s refreshing to step deep into nature.
e can do that this overheated summer on PBS (especially Baratunde Thurston’s Appalachian journey, at 9 p.m. July 26) … on BBC America (with gorgeous nature marathons on Saturdays) … and now in movie theaters.
That’s the spot for “Where the Crawdads Sing” (shown heere), which opened this past weekend to decent business. It lets us step into the wide-eyed life of someone consumed by natural beauty.
“Crawdads” was made for a modest budget ($24 million) and was expected to make only about $10 million in its first weekend (July 15-17) in the U.S. and Canada. Instead, it got $17 million. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 21, 2022

Stories

Sharks soar into TV dominance

It’s shark time again, which sort of makes our season complete.
“I don’t think you can have summer without Shark Week,” said Jeff Kurrm, producer of the “Air Jaws” films (shown here) and more.
Yes, the competing Shark Fest has been running for two weeks on National Geographic, with more to come. But Shark Week on Discovery (and now Discovery+) is the original, going back to 1988.
“We used to do seven or eight new films a year,” Kurr said. “Now how many are there?” Well, 28 new ones, starting July 24 (7 p.m. to midnight) and concluding July 30 (8-11:30 p.m.). Add the reruns and this goes from 2 a.m. July 24 to 4 p.m. July 31; that’s 182 straight hours of sharks. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 19, 2022

Stories

It’s Austen (or not), but worth watching

A new Jane Austen movie (sort of) has just debuted on Netflix.
It has the same title (“Persuasion”) and the same characters as Austen’s novel; it has the look and elegance of the same 1817 era. Still, it’s thoroughly different: Some people will enjoy it (as I did); others have already complained.
The biggest difference is attitude: From the first moment – when we learn that the baron (Richard E. Grant) savors any reflective surface, because he can see his image – this has verbal wit. Often, his daughter Anne (Dakota Johnson, shown here) talks directly to the camera, just as Phoebe Waller-Bridge did in the award-winning “Fleabag.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 17, 2022

Stories

Here’s the sunny world of Hampton locals

When we visit a cool summer spot, we might wonder:
What would it be like to live there? Would it seem like, well, summer forever?
Avery Solomon (shown here) – the central figure in “Forever Summer: Hamptons,” debuting Friday (July 15) on Amazon Prime — knows all about that. “I’m as local as local gets,” she said. “I know all the places to go. I know where the cops hang out.”
Some day, she’ll be injected into the grown-up world; she’s a Tulane student, hoping to go to medical school. But each summer, she’s back home, with a beach/bonfire/party life in Westhampton. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 9, 2022

Stories

Before “Flowers”: fresh generations of gloom

Imagine someone asking you to spend four months abroad, encased in deceit, dismay and cruelty.
Hey, how could you resist? Jemima Rooper insists it was kind of fun. Actors “became a loving family – not the twisted family you see” onscreen.
She’s Olivia — show here, right, approaching her new domain — in “Flowers in the Attic: The Origin.” That reaches Lifetime at 8 p.m. July 9, launching an avalanche of gloom. On four Saturdays, we get the roots of the dark classic, “Flowers in the Attic.”
During the pandemic, acting jobs were scarce in England (Rooper’s homeland) and the U.S. But here were four movies, filmed back-to-back in Romania. “We just felt really happy to be working.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 6, 2022