For country-music fans – often ignored, sometimes mocked – this is a splendid stretch
.That started last month, with Ken Burns’ “Country Music” taking 16 PBS hours. Now the second phase includes double Reba McEntire (shown here, double Carrie Underwood and lots of Garth Brooks: Read more…
1) “The Resident,” 9 p.m., Fox. At first glance, this is a Halloween episode – vampires … and rising from the dead … and The Raptor (shown here) and Mina stranded in a creepy town, filled with angry stares. Stick around, though; there’s a medical basis for each story. The two hospital ones are heavy-handed, despite terrific work from Jonathan Lipnicki (the former child star) in the “vampire” tale. But the third, in creepyville, is beautifully written and filmed, with an important story at its core. Read more…
On the surface, Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn were sort of the same
.They had worn fringed cowgirl suits and worked the fringes of show business. Lynn did juke joints and grange halls; Cline once sang atop the concession stand at a drive-in theater, drawing honks and boos.Both found Nashville fame.
Still, said Callie Khouri, “they were two extremely different people.”
That’s what Khouri savors in movie characters, whether fictional (she wrote “Thelma & Louise”) or real: She directed “Patsy & Loretta” (shown here with Megan Hilty as Cline and Jessie Mueller as Lynn), debuting Oct. 19 on Lifetime. Read more…
1) “The Terror: Impact” finale, 9 p.m., AMC. Opposite forces weave together. This is a horror story, sometimes gruesome …. It’s also a gentle folk tale, filled with gorgeous Japanese images …. And it’s a protest of sending 120,000 Japanese-Americans to internment camps. The closing credits show many of the actors and their detained ancestors … and show star George Takei (shown here), 82, a camp survivor. Read more…
1) “Batwoman,” 8 p.m., CW. In last week’s final minute, Kate (that’s Batwoman) had a startling notion: Maybe nasty Alice (Rachel Skarsten, shown here) is Kate’s long-dead sister, having become evil but not become dead. We’ll get an answer quickly, followed by ongoing arguments between Kate and her dad. He’s a one-note character, but “Batwoman” redeems itself with gorgeous visuals and its compelling lead character. Read more…
1) “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med” and “Chicago P.D.,” 8-11 p.m. Wednesday, NBC. It’s crossover time, flipping the order of the first two shows. Things start with firefighters and paramedics, rushing to a bacteria outbreak at a Bears game; a fire at a university causes Sevaride to suspect there’s something bigger. Then “Med” has an apartment complex under quarantine; Will comes across a bioterrorism suspect. That leads to “P.D.”(shown here) and a massive manhunt. Read more…
For years, neighbors in a Chicago suburb knew they were being watched.
Sometimes it was subtle – an odd car parked outside at all hours, workmen on the phone lines at 3 a.m. Sometimes it wasn’t; men showed up, flashed FBI badges and asked questions for an hour.
“We had all this paranoia in the neighborhood,” recalled Assia Boundaoui (shown here), who has made a PBS film about it. “People didn’t trust each other. We were constantly censoring ourselves.” Read more…
1) “The College Admissions Scandal” (shown here), 8 p.m., Lifetime, rerunning at 11:03. With the subtlety of a scream and the nuance of an avalanche, “Scandal” eyes a big story. It’s still watchable, because the reality is both shocking and perversely funny; the approach, however, is inept. Ducking the real stories (including Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman), this has fictional parents – then makes one a hideous Cruella/Maleficent type, burying the drama in excess. Gretchen Carlson’s follow-up is at 10:03. Read more…
1) “The Blacklist,” 8 p.m., NBC. The season opened last week with dazzling twists and illusions. Red woke up in a French hospital, nearly paralyzed … or he (and we) thought that happened. It was a fake hospital (in Maryland), an elaborate ruse by the Russian spy whose existence is a secret — even to her daughter Elizabeth, who’s scrambling to find Red. Now the illusions build. At this point, Red has escaped and been re-captured. It’s a brilliant and explosive (shown here) hour, with surprises to the end. Read more…
1) “Perfect Harmony,” 8:30 p.m., NBC. This may be the first time we’ve seen a small church choir belt out “We Are the Champions,” celebrating a trophy for being most improved. “Harmony” is like that, pulling odd twists. Bradley Whitford, already a triple Emmy-winner, provides the core as a crabby choirmaster, but others are also first-rate. Tonight, Ginny (Anna Camp, shown here) unleashes her inner Dolly. And Spencer Allport, as her son, has some droll lines, sort of like Jake in early “Two and a Half Men.” Read more…
