Tiny Beautiful Things

Stories

She strayed into a wild, beautiful life

By now, some readers know the dizzying extremes of Cheryl Strayed’s life.
She was a star student who crumbled after her mother’s death … and a heroin addict, her life adrift … and a solo hiker on the 1,100-mile Pacific Crest Trail … and an author whose work keeps being filmed.
There was “Wild,” with Reese Witherspoon as Strayed, hiking the trail. And now there’s “Tiny Beautiful Things”(shown here with Kathryn Hahn) – debuting Friday (April 7) on Hulu, with a unique concept.
As Liz Tigelaar, the series creator, told the Television Critics Association: “I started to think: What would it look like if Cheryl had never hiked the Pacific Crest Trail? ’” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 6, 2023
Stories

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…

By Mike Hughes / March 1, 2023