In her nomadic, global life, Helene Joy didn’t expected forever. She was lucky to count on tomorrow.
Then she found the essence of stability – Canadians in general and “Murdoch Mysteries” in particular.
That amiable series (shown here with Joy and Yanick Bisson) has its 200th episode Saturday on cable’s Ovation. The episode is filled with famous names – not the actors, but the characters: Edison and Einstein, Carnegie and Curie and more. Read more…
Looking back at a busy life and a lost election, Hillary Clinton summed things up.
“I have been often – in my view, obviously – mis-characterized, mis-perceived,” she said. “And I have to bear a lot of the responsibility for it.”
She was talking to the Television Critics Association in January (shown here), about the documentary (“Hillary”) that debuts Friday (March 6) on Hulu. And she was saying that it’s her fault, partly, that Donald Trump is president. Read more…
Here is the precise opposite of type-casting:
In “Devs,” Nick Offerman (shown here) plays someone who masters the wispy world of computer dimensions.
Yes, that Nick Offerman – the hands-on, work-with-wood guy. “My character is an incredibly creative genius, so that required some heavy leaning on my classical training,” he joked. “I did a lot of homework; I spoke with my cast members, who are much smarter than me.” Read more…
Television used to give us plenty of perfect parents.
Father knew best. Ozzie and Harriet had it all figured out; so did the Bradys, the Huxtables and more.
But now comes “Breeder” (shown here), which is sort of about the rest of us.
“When you become a parent,” said Simon Blackwell, one of the show’s creators, “you’re given this perfect human being …. And theoretically, you can do it perfectly. But you won’t and you will fail.” Read more…
Imagine being Logan Lerman.
He’s a young actor who’s done the usual young-actor roles. (As a kid, he did a couple Mel Gibson films and starred in a “Hallmark Hall of Fame”; as a teen, he starred in a superhero movie, later doing a sequel.)
But he’s also a film buff who admires the classics. And suddenly, at 28, he’s starring (shown here) with Al Pacino. “He’s my favorite actor,” Lerman said.
For “Hunters” – which debuted Feb. 21 on Amazon Prime – they were colleagues. “It’s mainly Logan’s story,” said Pacino, 79. Read more…
Rich contrasts flowed through the life and music of Miles Davis.
This was the consummate cool-guy trumpeter, with fans ranging from Sinatra to rappers. “I don’t know any other musician who has played with Charlie Parker and Prince,” drummer Vince Wilburn told the Television Critics Association last month.
Davis played in the turbo-charged style of the 1940s, then switched to a slower, emotional style. As Farah Griffin, a music historian, put it in a new PBS film: “I want to feel the way Miles sounds.”
The film (9-11 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25) is aptly called “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool.” Davis’ sound and image were so cool that we might guess he was born in a grotto and raised in a jazz club. Read more…
Leaping across continents, Josh Thomas has ignored TV’s assumptions.
American networks try to be relatable and universal and such. Instead, he’s turned his offbeat Australian teen years into sometimes-great TV.
“Teenage girls are like so funny to me, right?” Thomas said. “And I just really wanted to write a teenage girl.”
He’s written a lot of them– led by Kaylan Cromer, shown here — for “Everything’s Gonna Be Okay.” And in the next episode (Feb. 20), they converge in wonderfully odd ways. Read more…
Hollywood has plenty of people who flash and fade, sizzle and fizzle.
And it has Tim Busfield, 62, who seems eternal. “I’ve done killer-cat movies and ‘Field of Dreams,’” he said. “Good shows and bad shows.
He’s directed, produced and, mostly, acted. His new “For Life” role is part of a far-ranging career that has gone from “Thirtysomething” (shown here) to silliness. Read more…
Doris Kearns Goodwin had been working her way through the presidents.
Her books had traced the lives of Kennedy, Johnson, Lincoln, Taft and two Roosevelts. They had brought her fame, a Pulitzer Prize and a couple of drinking sessions with Daniel Day Lewis.
What was missing was the first and best-known president. Now she’s produced “Washington” (shown here), the documentary mini-series airing Sunday, Monday (yes, Presidents Day) and Tuesday on the History Channel Read more…
“High Fidelity” keeps marching across the media landscape.
It was a 1995 Nick Hornby novel … a 2000 John Cusack movie … and a 2006 Broadway musical. Now it’s a streaming series – a good one – arriving Friday(Feb.14) on Hulu.
In each version, we meet Rob, a young record-store owner who composes top-5 lists while facing romance setbacks.
Details change along the way. Rob was originally white and male; now the role is beautifully played by Zoe Kravitz (shown here), who is neither. Read more…
