Daily Best Bets
Best-bets for Nov. 16: great “Grinch,” awesome “Oz” Best-bets for Nov. 16: great “Grinch,” awesome “Oz” Best-bets for Nov. 15: Reruns are worth re-seeing Best-bets for Nov. 15: Reruns are worth re-seeing Best-bets for Nov. 14: a warm Thanksgiving and a big streaming day Best-bets for Nov. 14: a warm Thanksgiving and a big streaming day
Stories

A massacre’s impact resonates through history

By Mike Hughes / November 10, 2024
Stories

Grier took a funny route to the hospital

By Mike Hughes / November 8, 2024
Stories

It’s a wild world — even in our cities

By Mike Hughes / November 1, 2024
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Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for Sept. 25: a few scripted gems; a LOT of reality

1) “The Irrational” debut, 10 p.m. today, NBC. New dramas – scripted ones, on broadcast networks – are rare these days. But this one, which began filming before the strikes, starts well. Jesse L. Martin (shown here) plays a guy who survived a tragedy, then became a behavioral science professor, working with the police. The opening scene is a gem; the case that follows is quite good. Next week’s hour is so-so, but the third bounces back. We’ll keep watching Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 21, 2023
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Sept. 23: endless football … plus some laughs

1) Football, 7:30 p.m. ET, NBC. Two top-10 teams collide, with Notre Dame (shown here) hosting Ohio State. That’s on the second Saturday this year (and the second one ever) when five broadcast networks have primetime games. Also at 7:30 p.m.. ABC has Texas at Baylor and CBS has Iowa at Penn State. CW has Georgia Tech at Wake Forest at 6:30 p.m.; Fox has Oregon State at Washington State at 7, then Southern Cal at Arizona State at 10:30. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 21, 2023
Stories

Hallmark’s deluge has 40 new Christmas films

Until now, we feared there will be few new, scripted shows on TV this year.
Not so. There will be plenty … but most of them will be Christmas movies.
Shortly after one cable channel (Great American Family) announced 20 new Christmas films for this year, the Hallmark people doubled that. They’ll have 40 new ones (one is shown here) – 31 on the Hallmark Channel, plus nine on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.
That’s 60 so far – with other networks – especially Lifetime and UpTV – expected to add more.
All of this comes despite writers’ and actors’ strikes, which started May 2 and July 14. Christmas movies tend to be done far in advance. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 20, 2023
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Sept. 22: Streamers give us rock stars and assassins

1) “IHeartRadio Music Festival,” 10 p.m. ET (7 p.m. PT), Hulu; continues Saturday. This used to give the CW network a vibrant start to its fall season. Now, instead, it’s livestreamed. Ryan Seacrest hosts from Las Vegas, with a line-up that has country (Tim McGraw, Kane Brown), rap and hip hop (Public Enemy, Lil Wayne) and waves of pop and R&B – Kelly Clarkson, Lenny Kravitz (shown here in a previous show), Sheryl Crow, Miguel, TLC, Fall Out Boy, Foo Fighters and more. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 20, 2023
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Sept. 21: on the brink of new season

1) “American Ninja Warrior,” 9-11 p.m., NBC. In two weeks, NBC will fill this spot with new episodes of “Transplant” (a fairly good Canadian drama) and reruns of “Dateline.” For now, it reruns the “Ninja” special (shown here) from Monday – a relay race involving people who are couples in real life. That’s preceded at 8 p.m. by a “Password” rerun that has Jimmy Fallon and Meghan Trainor. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 19, 2023
News and Quick Comments

When does Christmas start? Maybe on Oct. 21

Let’s quit worrying about when the TV season will really begin.
Instead, we’ll jump to a bigger question: When does Christmas begin?
Now we have an answer: It starts Oct. 21, when the Great American Family channel has the first of its new Christmas movies. It has 20 of them, including one (shown here) with Candace Cameron Bure and Gabriel Hogan.
Yes, October –the month before the month before Christmas. It’s 10 days before Halloween and 33 days before Thanksgiving; it’s 65 days before Christmas Day, giving us time for last-minute shopping. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 18, 2023
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Sept. 20: chefs conclude, horrors begin

1) “MasterChef” finale, 8-10 p.m., Fox. The South team has dominated all season. Last week, it had three people in the final six … but then two were ousted. That leaves Jennifer Maune (shown here), 42, a mother of six and lifestyle blogger who’s been a cheerleader, Junior Leaguer. real-estate salesperson and more. She faces people from the Midwest (Grant Gillan, 32, a brewery sales director) and West (Kennedy U., 26, a festival vendor). Each prepares a three-course dinner. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 18, 2023
Stories

A tattered season coming? Not on PBS

The face on the screen was familiar and re-assuring.
Yes, this may be the TV season people dread, with two strikes and an overload of reality shows. But there was Ken Burns, via Zoom, reminding us that PBS is as strong as ever.
Burns has been making prize-winning documentaries for four decades.. All of them, he said, came with “no marketing decisions, no focus panels, … just whatever lands in our hearts or our guts.”
Coming next (Oct. 16-17) is a portrait of the Amrican buffalo (shown here). The first half, he admits, is “incredibly difficult to watch.” Still, both halves are richly crafted and deeply moving.
That provides a neat consolation: As awful as this TV season may be, PBS seems to be in fine shape. Here’s an updated look at what’s coming, with details through October and a few glimpses ahead: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 18, 2023
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Sept. 19: “Frida” starts, “Talent” nears finish

1) “America’s Got Talent,” 8-10 p.m., NBC. It’s time to fill the last spots in next week’s finals. Tonight’s contestants come from Russian Japan, Brazil, South Korea and Tanzania. They range from a 7-year-old dancer to a 61-year-old magician. There’s another magician, a dance group, an acrobat duo and a hula hoop aerialist, plus three solo singers, a duo (Trailer Flowers, shown here) and a chorus. Viewers will vote; on Wednesday, at least two acts will learn they’re in the finals. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 17, 2023
News and Quick Comments

“Theater Camp”: indie filmmaking at its best

I’ve never been to theater camp and never really done theater.
(That’s assuming you don’t count two nights in a small-town Wisconsin high school. You shouldn’t.)
Still, I love “Theater Camp” (shown here), the movie that just reached Hulu. It reminds us just how good an independent film can be.
Indie movies are often made with a shortage of money and an excess of wit and skill. They’re where Greta Gerwig started (with “Lady Bird” and such) before “Little Women” and “Barbie”; where Jennifer Lawrence showed her talent (with the wonderful “Winter’s Bone”) before becoming a superstar; where Wes Anderson remains, through “Moonrise Kingdom” and “Asteroid City” and more. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 17, 2023
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for Nov. 18: from Da Vinci to Lisa Simpson

By Mike Hughes / November 14, 2024
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Nov. 16: great “Grinch,” awesome “Oz”

By Mike Hughes / November 14, 2024
News and Quick Comments

CBS shuffle: “Sydney,” “Squares,” “Watson,” more

By Mike Hughes / November 13, 2024
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Nov. 15: Reruns are worth re-seeing

By Mike Hughes / November 13, 2024
News and Quick Comments

ABC patches some holes in mid-season shift

By Mike Hughes / November 12, 2024