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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Stories

“Weird” kid became nature’s storyteller

For a few folks, childhood obsessions and adulthood careers merge neatly.
Most of us don’t get to be superheroes or rock stars. Bertie Gregory (shown here), however, still obsesses on nature the same way he did when, he says, “everyone thought I was a bit weird.”
And sometimes, the old dreams and new ones blend.
As a kid, he marveled at how Charles Darwin used the Galapagos Islands to figure evolution. Now one of his six episodes of “Animals Up Close with Bertie Gregory” – which arrives Wednesday (Sept. 13) on Disney+ — brought his first trip to the islands. “You can see everything in action,” he said. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 11, 2023
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Sept. 13: a great day for streamers

1) “The Morning Show” season-opener, Apple TV+. Two years after its second season began, the third is finally here. It has vivid characters, plus dialog so sharp you’d think Aaron Sorkin is involved. Desperate to sell his network to a tech billionaire (Jon Hamm), the CEO agrees to put his star (Jennifer Anisto, shown here) on the guy’s space journey. On Earth, his other star (Reese Witherspoon) eyes a big story. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 11, 2023
News and Quick Comments

Love guns? Hate guns? Worlds meet

A strange thing happens sometimes on PBS.
People from opposite worlds meet. They talk; often, they even like each other.
At least, that’s how it turns out in “America Outdoors With Baratunde Thurston,” at 8 p.m. Wednesdays. The Sept. 13 hour links:
— Kayle Browning (shown here), 31, a silver-medal Olympic sharp-shooter who grew up in small-town Arkansas. “My experience with firearms has only ever been positive,” she said, especially “the community that comes along with it, the career you can have with it.”
— Thurston, 46, who grew up in Washington, D.C., in the 1980s, hating guns. “It was a war zone …. My father was essentially a casualty of that war. (He was) shot and killed.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 10, 2023
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Sept. 12: global thriller, global talent show

1) “The Swarm” debut, 9 p.m., CW. Something seems wrong in the oceans. Whales are late … or dead … or violent. That’s the start of an eight-week, international mini-series that starts slowly, but will find mankind at risk. Even in its quietest moments, this opener gives us two young researchers to root for — one (played by Joshua Odjick, an Indigenous Canadian) on Vancouver Island, the other (Leonie Benesch, shown here, a German movie star) on Shetland Island. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 10, 2023
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Sept. 11: Re-visit two somber eras

1) Sept. 11 documentaries. For the 20th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks (shown here), filmmakers did a brilliant job of combining old footage and fresh comments. Now, two years later, some of those films rerun. The National Geographic Channel’s compelling “9/11: One Day in America” runs from 8 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.; the History Channel’s “9/11: I Was There” is 8-10:03 p.m. Other 9/11 films start at 7 a.m. on History and 6 p.m. on National Geographic. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 9, 2023
News and Quick Comments

Season preview: streamers create a have/have-not world

As the Hollywood strikes continue, TV viewers are split into haves and have-nots.
Many will feel the impact this fall. They’ll wonder how many reality shows the human soul can absorb.
For others, it will be milder. Loaded with streaming networks, they’ll keep finding new shows.
It can’t last, of course. Even the streamers – which work far in advance – will sputter if the writers’ and actors’ strikes continue. But for now, life seems semi-normal.
One vivid example is Wednesday, Sept. 13. That’s when Apple TV+ launches the third season of “The Morning Show,” rippling with sharp dialog and vivid characters played Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon (shown here) and Jon Hamm. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 8, 2023
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Sept. 10: new dramas, new masks

1) “The Masked Singer” season-opener, after football (about 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT), Fox. In a burst of optimism, we could call this the start of the TV season. Pro football fills the afternoon on CBS and Fox and the evening (Cowboys-Giants) on NBC. And Fox uses its football double-header as a springboard to the “Masked Singer” (shown here in a previous year) season. Afterward, “Singer” will go back on the shelf, waiting for the rest of its season to start on Sept. 27. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 8, 2023
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for Sept. 11: games, cowboys and some serious history

1) “Yellowstone opener,” 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. Sunday, CBS. Five years ago, a wobbly cable channel, formerly The Nashville Network and Spike, became the Paramount Network. Most of its shows failed, with a splendid exception. Written and produced by Taylor Sheridan and starring Kevin Costner (shown here), it’s a modern western, with taut dialog and strong characters. Ratings soared; now CBS (also owned by Paramount) will rerun the entire series, from the start. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 7, 2023
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Sept. 9: Football fills five broadcast networks

1) College football. For the first time ever, there are primetime games on all five of the top commercial, broadcast networks. We expect that from ABC (which has Wisconsin,shown here, and Washington State at 7:30 p.m. ET), CBS (UCLA-San Diego State, 7:30) and Fox (Oregon-Texas Tech, 7). But now NBC, no longer confined to Notre Dame, has Charlotte-Maryland at 7:30. And CW carries Atlantic Coast Conference games; at 6:30, it has Cincinnati-Pittsburgh. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 7, 2023
Stories

Season preview: Against the odds, dramas debut

.(This has been updated.)
Each new TV season seems to stir optimism.
It’s sort of like each first date or job interview, only without the breath-freshener.
We expect the best; each season could bring the next “Seinfeld or “ER” or “West Wing.” Even when we get the next “Dweebs” or “Hello, Larry” or “My Mother the Car,” we’re hopeful.
But what about the season that starts this month, amid writers’ and actors’ strikes? The streaming and premium-cable networks, working far in advance, are still OK, but what does regular TV have to offer?
A little. There are shows (including “The Irrational,” shown here) that started filming before the strikes …. And ones that have already aired overseas …. And reality and game shows – lots of them.
Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 6, 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