The Last Thing He Told Me

Want a good story? View the sideline players

When most folks watch the news, they focus on the key players.
Some writers, however, eye the people on the side. That’s what led to “The Good Wife” and now to “The Last Thing He Told Me” (shown here), a sometimes-compelling Jennifer Garner mini-series that starts Friday (April 14) on Apple TV+. Consider:
— Michelle and Robert King were intrigued by all the women who manage to seem stoic as their husbands are charged with evil deeds. That led to “The Good Wife,” which had a seven-year run.
— Laura Dave was watching a TV interview, with Linda Lay defending her husband, Enron chief Kenneth Lay. She envisioned a story about a woman “who believes that the world is telling her one thing and yet she knows, in her soul, who she has married,” she told the Television Critics Association. Read more…

Reese’s pieces fill the media landscape

Movie moguls used to have a consistent image.
As portrayed (in films and stories and such), they were big and blunt. They drank a lot, smoked as lot, didn’t read much. They definitely weren’t cherubic-faced book nerds.
That’s what makes this surprising: Reese Witherspoon has become one of Hollywood’s top producers.
Yes, that Reese – the one who convinced us she was a ditz in “Legally Blonde” movies. After lots of success in the past – from “Gone Girl” to “Bright Little Lies” and “Where the Crawdads Sing” – her company, Hello Sunshine, has four series streaming this spring:
— “Daisy Jones & the Six” (shown here) starts Friday (March 3) on Amazon Prime. A richly crafted series about a fictional rock band, it’s filled with characters who are deeply flawed, yet deeply fascinating. Read more…