1) Figure skating, 8-11 p.m., NBC. The national championships continue through Sunday, but this is the night viewers prefer – the women’s finals. (Shown here, in a previous event, is returning champion Isabeau Levito.) Still coming are finals for dance (2:30 p.m. Saturday, NBC), pairs (8 p.m. Saturday, USA Network) and men (2 p.m. Sunday, NBC). Read more…
For some fans of at-home movies, the Oscar nominations were neatly timed.
“Killers of the Flower Moon” reached Apple TV+ on Jan. 12. Eleven days later, it got 10 Academy Award nominations, including best picture.
Others best-picture nominees arrive soon. “Past Lives” reaches Paramount+ on Feb. 2; “Oppenheimer” (shown here) – the leader, with 13 nominations – is on Peacock two weeks later.
And some have been streaming for a while. It’s “Barbie” on Max, “Maestro” on Netflix, “The Holdovers” on Peacock. Netflix also has films with nominations for actors (“Nyad,” “Rustin”) and original script (“May December”). Read more…
1) “Hell’s Kitchen” finale, 8-10 p.m., Fox. Three young chefs remain in the running for the $250,000 prize and the head-chef spot at a Las Vegas restaurant. Ryan O’Sullivan, 25, is from Ireland; Johnathan Benvenuti, 28, is from California and Sammi Tarantino (shown here), 25, is originally from Ohio. In the first hour, they impress guest chefs; in the second, the top two prepare a menu and a full dinner service. Read more…
1) “Nature: Big Little Journeys” finale, 8 p.m., PBS. This three-week gem has followed small animals on big journeys. Now a chameleon in Madagascar and a water vole (shown here) in Scotland must each find a mate and a place for babies to be born. Skillfully using technology and trickery (several animals merge into one story), this offers a dazzling look at tiny creatures in a big world. Read more…
There’s a movie mini-trend that’s worth grumbling about.
It can be summed up as: Promise a pound (via the title); deliver a couple ounces.
Mind you, we can’t grumble too loudly. This has been used by the world’s greatest director (Steven Spielberg) and has spawned two Academy Award-winning performances; but it’s also been used for small and rather disappointing films.
That comes to mind now as Showtime has the 2023 “Golda” (shown here), at 8:15 p.m. Thursday (Jan. 25). It’s a worthy little film, but a mere fraction of what we might expect. And it’s part of a long trend, for good or bad: Read more…
1) “NCIS: Sidney” season-finale, 8 p.m., CBS. This Aussie/American blend (shown here) has done a fairly solid job of wielding cop-show cliches. Now it amps up the odds, with mixed results. It starts with one of the strangest kidnapping in TV history and ends cleverly. In between, it requires people to behave out-of-character, in the way TV fiction prefers. Read more…
One of my favorite bits of music commentary came from a 5-year-old.
Out of the blue one day, he said: “Isn’t it amazing that Justin Bieber is a real person?”
That comes to mind now, with word that Mary Weiss, lead singer of the Shangri-Las (shown here, with Weiss at right), died Friday (Jan. 19), at 75.
There was a neatly other-world feeling to her “Leader of the Pack.” In three minutes, it told a complete teen soap opera, from first meeting (in a candy store, no less) to a jolting motorcycle death, with the word “gone” repeated 26 times.
So it’s good to know that behind all that heightened drama was a real person – a 15-year-old who grew up poor, became briefly famous, then retreated into a life that included being an accountant, businesswoman, decorator and comeback singer. Read more…
1) “The Bachelor” opener, 8-10 p.m., ABC. After being runner-up on “Bachelorette.” Joey Graziadei is now in charge. He’s 28 and teaches tennis; he’ll meet four women in their early 30s and 28 in their twenties. There are three nurses, a mental-health therapist and a mental-health counselor. There’s also an actress, an artist, an “esthetician,” a nanny (Evalin, shown here) and a pro-football cheerleader. Read more…
1) “Encanto” (2021), 8 p.m., Disney Channel, or “Soul” (2020), 9 p.m., ABC. These films have much in common. Each streamed at Christmas, rippling with music and ethnic flavor; each won the Oscar for best animated picture. But “Soul” (with a jazzy sound) hit the pandemic and skipped theaters in the U.S.; “Encanto” (shown here), with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Latino sound, had better luck a year later. Read more…
If you happen to love trees (many people do) and hate bigotry (most do), this was a tough one:
In Palm Springs, Cal. (shown here), there was a spirited debate about removing trees that formed a racial border. That’s the focus of “Racist Trees,” a compelling documentary that reaches most PBS stations at 10 p.m. Monday, under the “Independent Lens” banner.
Even that title has split people. Fox News mocked the notion: Can trees really be racist?
No, but they can be a racial barrier. Many things can. In Michigan, a river separates Benton Harbor (89 percent Black) from St. Joseph (88 percent White). In Florida, a highway separates the impoverished Liberty City area from the wealthier sections in other parts of Miami. Throughout the nation, studies have shown, highways shattered Black communities. Read more…
Best-bets for Nov.8: a semi-happy place; a musical salute 
Best-bets for Nov. 7: ABC is back; CBS is fun 
Best-bets for Nov. 6: San Diego goes wild; Fox has fun, fun, fun 
