Day: August 27, 2019

Best-bets for Aug. 29: Bright skies, dark trouble

1) “Reef Break,” 9 and 10 p.m., ABC. As summer slogs to its end, we need something like this – a double shot of scripted hours in a blue-sky setting. Poppy Montgomery (shown here) is Cat, a former thief who solves crimes on the island where she grew up. In the first hour, Petra — the surfer who has long hated her — has been kidnapped; Cat tries to free her. In the second, the island is celebrating her birthday. Soon, things go wrong: Cat is ill and, ABC says, is facing her most dangerous situation yet. Read more…

Best-bets for Aug. 28: Leno starts, Costner stops

1) Jay Leno’s Garage” season-opener, 10 p.m., CNBC. Kevin Hart considers his 1976 Bronco a tough, off-road vehicle. “I bought one for my wife,” Leno says. “She takes it to book club.” Leno has lots of on-road cars like the one shown here, but now it’s time for off-roaders – from a $750,000 hurricane-hunter to armored cars with bullet-proof glass. One can jam drones, blast an electric shock into the door handle and hit a pursuing car with smoke or a blinding light. This hour is contrived and semi-scripted, but still quite entertaining. Read more…

Binge shows are ready to seize our holiday weekend

In the low-tech, no-tech days, people did odd things over the Labor Day weekend.
They swam or had picnics or talked to family and friends. It was a strange time
.And this coming weekend? They’re supposed to binge-watch something.
Four streaming services release big projects Friday, aimed at bingers Two are opposites – a feel-good, frontier story and an intense modern crime tale. The other two are fantasy tales; the four are: Read more…