Stories

A longtime love for (and worry about) oceans

In Shailene Woodley’s sunny childhood, water was a pleasant distraction.
She grew up in upscale Simi Valley, taking family trips to nearby Malibu. “We would often camp near the ocean,” she told the Television Critics Association. “And because my parents weren’t afraid of water, they taught my brother and I to be very brave and respectful of the ocean.”
At 32, she’s a movie star (“Divergent,” “The Fault in Our Stars”), a TV star (“Big Little Lies”), a surfer and an ocean advocate. That’s what brings her back to TV, for “Hope in the Water” (shown here) at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on PBS. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 16, 2024

Stories

It’s time for size-and-spectacle, season two

This is a question many of us might ponder: What is it like to ride one of Hollywood’s make-believe dragons?
“It’s just like riding a dragon in real life,” Eve Best semi-explained. “It’s deeply uncomfortable.”
She should know. She’s Princess Rhaenys in “House of the Dragon” (shown here), the “Game of Thrones” prequel that starts its second at 9 p.m. Sunday (June 16) on HBO and Max. Late in the first season, she had a dragon-riding escape that fans considered spectacular.
Best will have to take their word for it. “I’ve never seen it (the show),” she claimed, in that dry, British way. “I heard it’s fantastic.”
And the new season could be bigger. It has “two sequences that outstrip the size and spectacle of anything in Season One,” said producer Ryan Condal, Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 12, 2024

Stories

This “brat pack” gave Hollywood a youth makeover

In the early ‘80s, people were still making movies for folks who rarely went to movies.
Then, Andrew McCarthy recalls, logic intervened: “Hollywood discovered that: ‘Wait a minute, kids go to see a movie five, six, seven times. Grown-ups see a movie once.’”
What followed was dubbed the “Brat Pack” era; McCarthy’s documentary – arriving Thursday (June 13) on Hulu – is simply called “Brats.”.
That “brat pack” phrase – a variation on Frank Sinatra’s “rat pack” — may be unfair. It was fueled by a toxic article David Blum wrote for New York magazine in 1985, shortly before “St. Elmo’s Fire” (shown here) came out. Still, some of the people involved gradually absorbed it. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 9, 2024

Stories

Canceled quickly, this turned into forever-TV

Long ago, Stefan Dennis showed his limited ability to prophesize the future.
He had been cast in a new soap opera, he recalled. “I said it probably wouldn’t last six months …. I pretty much got that right; it lasted seven months.”
Dennis paused, then added: “Or 40 years.”
The show is “Neighbours” (shown here with Dennis), now a rare examples of forever TV. Canceled after seven months in Australia, it was soon revived by adding a British connection. Canceled again after 37 years, it was revived by adding an American connection.
That’s where it is now, almost 39 years after its Australian debut. Its U.S. home is Amazon Freevee, a streaming service that uses ads rather than subscription. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 7, 2024

Stories

“Queenie” finds fun in life’s chaos

It was the right book at (maybe) the wrong time. That was when Candice Carty-Williams discovered “Bridget Jones’s Diary.”
“I read the book when I was too young, probably,” she told the Television Critics Association. “I stole it from my aunt’s bookshelf and I read it in the summer.”
Later, that would influence “Queenie,” her award-winning debut novel. Heralded as “the Black ‘Bridget Jpones’s Diary,’” it won awards and is now a brief comedy series (shown here), with eight half-hours arriving in one gulp Friday (June 7) on Hulu. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 6, 2024

Stories

The sad-sibling story of LA’s other team

In baseball’s two-team towns, there’s often been a sad-sibling syndrome.
It’s been the YANKEES and the mets in New York, the DODGERS and the angels in Los Angeles. Other sad siblings ran away from home, looking for love elsewhere; ask fans of the Boston Braves, Philadelphia A’s, St. Louis Browns or New York Giants.
And in pro basketball? Los Angeles has the Lakers and the Clippers, now with opposite TV series: “Winning Time: The Rise of the Laker Dynasty” had fun, flash, magic and Magic; Hulu’s “Clipped” (ahown here) — Tuesdays, starting June 4 — has a grimmer view. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 2, 2024

Stories

Movies offer summer fun — in theaters and beyond

As June arrives, we should propel our search for fun movies.
A few arrived recently, in theaters or via streaming . I’ll mention them (including “Anyone But You,” shown here) in a moment.
This has always been a time to search for bright spirits. “Each year, the summer season presents itself as a blank slate, full of opportunity,” John Malahy wrote in “Summer Movies” (Running Press, 2021), a book that manages to leap from “Gidget” and “Beach Blanket Bingo” to Spike Lee and Ingmar Bergman.
In his introduction to that book, film critic Leonard Maltin agreed: “Summer meant one thing above all else to me: the freedom to go to the movies any day of the week.” But where can we find fun now? A few suggestions: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 30, 2024

Stories

PBS stuffs summer with drama, music, more

This summer, PBS will fill voids left by other broadcast networks.
It will have dramas – strong, smart ones, led by “Grantchester” (shown here) – on Sundays. It will also have music – a couple concerts, an opera and a three-part look at the disco era.
Alongside that will be extended looks at ecology and comedy … plus two weeks devoted to the Republican and Democratic conventions.
The big-four commercial networks have lots of summer games and reality shows, but no scripted dramas. That’s where PBS starts to fit in; it will have: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 25, 2024

Stories

Odom brings pulpit passion to “Purlie”

Leslie Odom Jr. spent much of his youth soaking up Philadelphia’s arts world.
He studied dance at Philadanco, acting at New Freedom Theatre, both at a performing-arts high school. But overshadowing all of that was the church.
“What the church connected me to was conviction in performance,” Odom, a Tony-winner for “Hamilton” — told the Television Critics Association.
It’s fine to sing the right notes and dance the right moves, but the bigger goal is to project passion. That became a goal “any time … I stood up in front of the congregation to do some reading. Or certainly when I heard the pastor deliver a sermon and stir us.”
Now that fits his starring role in “Purlie Victorious” (shown here) at 9 p.m. Friday (May 24) on PBS. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 21, 2024

Stories

A pure-country Marine sparks Memorial concert

Jamey Johnson had been to way too many burials of his fellow Marines.
Each brought deep emotions and a 21-gun salute. “Sometimes, I was one of the men firing the guns,” he said.
After the emotions percolated for decades, he co-wrote “21 Guns.” Now he’ll perform it at the “National Memorial Day Concert,” at 8 and 9:30 p.m. Sunday (May 26) on PBS.
There will be plenty of other stong voices — Gary LeVox (of Rascal Flatts); Broadway’s Cynthia Erivo, Patina Miller and Ruthie Ann Miles– plus the National Orchestra and more, including Bryan Cranston and others reading passionate stores. But Johnson will be the one bringing his years in the Marine Reserves. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 20, 2024