Month: July 2020

Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for July 30: Basketball’s back

1) Basketball return, 6:30 and 9 p.m. ET, TNT. Life may finally be better for sports fans. Baseball starts its second week and basketball resumes its broken season. It starts with the New Orleans Pelicans (hoping that powerhouse Zion Williamson, shown here) is healthy and ready to play), then has the Los Angeles Lakers and LA Clippers. Those names seem problematic, of course, because Los Angeles has no lakes and Utah has little jazz. One team moved from New Orleans, which has great jazz; another moved from Minnesota, which has great (or, at least, really good) lakes. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 28, 2020
Stories

Culture clash? Nigerian grit meets reality-show glitz

TV is fond of opposites and odd couples, so maybe this makes sense:
When “Real Housewives of Potomac” starts its season Sunday (Aug. 2), a hard-working Nigerian-American – with four college degrees, three children and many jobs – will join the flashy crowd.
It’s not a total mismatch, Wendy Osefo said. “I’m in the same social circles as some of the ladies.” (She’s shown here. socially circling with her husband Edward and, right, Candiace Dillard._
Still, we think of the various “Real Housewives” reality shows as being filled with glitz, with privileged people who are ready to throw a drink or at raise a fuss. By comparison, Osefo’s life has involved constant motion. “I feel like I’m on a hamster wheel,” she said, without really complaining. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 27, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for July 29: Farewell to “Tag,” Amy, cops

1) “Ultimate Tag” season-finale, 9 p.m., Fox. To high-octane shows wrap up simultaneously. One (“Bulletproof,” listed next) is scripted; this one is action-reality. On a three-dimensional course, tag pros — really — chase contestants (shown here). All are top athletes, as are the hosts – J.J., Watt (named three times as the NFL’s top defensive player) and his brothers (also football pros), T.J. and Derek. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 27, 2020
News and Quick Comments

TV this fall? PBS plans music, drama, zombies

As TV networks’ fall plans sputter, there’s a counterpoint:
PBS still has big plans for the season. That includes concerts (including Lea Salonga, shown here), dramas, politics, nature and whimsy.
Well, not a lot of whimsy. (This is PBS, after all.) But it will air “History of Zombies” on the eve of Halloween and visit “Santa’s Wild Home” before Christmas; it will also have a jazz tribute to “Sesame Street,” visit tropical islands and board the queen’s plane. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 26, 2020
Stories

Conspiracy theories swirl through internet

Conspiracy theories have long been lurking out there, stirring our emotions.
We’ve seen the Kennedy-assassination ideas of Oliver Stone and others; we’ve had UFO tales, billed as fiction (“X-Files”) or fact. Earlier, Joe McCarthy insisted he held the names of 205 Communist conspirators in the U.S. government.
Often, those views are nudged aside. But now, some viewers will have seen two major documentaries in five days: On Friday (July 24), CNN’s Fareed Zakaria presented “Donald Trump’s Conspiracy Theories”; at 10 p.m. Tuesday (July 28), PBS’ “Frontline” has “United States of Conspiracy,” focusing on Alex Jones (shown here). Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 26, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for July 28: “Story,” Regis, news, more

1) “Tell Me a Story,” 9 p.m., CW. After two years on CBS All Access, this gets a shot at a broadcast audience. It’s a good one, even if it doesn’t do what it claims – putting a modern twist on three fairy tales. That link is weak, but all three stories slowly seize our attention. One – with the always-terrific James Wolk (shown here) nudging his girlfriend toward marriage and family – ends the hour powerfully. The others have talented newcomers Danielle Campbell and Davi Santos in troubled lives. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 26, 2020
Stories

John Lewis tributes fill the week

John Lewis, a towering figure in civil rights, will be memorialized often in the next week.
Some reruns were already planned. The documentary “John Lewis: Get In the Way” is at pbs.org and on stations’ websites; “Legends Who Paved the Way” – a gala with Lewis and others – reruns at 11 a.m. Sunday (July 26) on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
That’s the morning when a procession will see Lewis, for one final time, cross Selma, Alabama’s Edmund Pettus Bridge – where he was beaten fiercely by police during a 1965 march. (He’s shown here at a reunion walk across the bridge.) Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 25, 2020
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for July 27: A strong — but sub-titled — night

1) “POV: Advocate,” 10 p.m., PBS (check local listings). Americans have savored stories of lawyers who make the impossible fight. Now here’s an extreme: Lea Tsemel (shown here), 75, was once a volunteer Israeli soldier, believed to be the first Jewish woman to reach the Wailing Wall. For generations, she has represented Palestinians who are accused of terrorism. “We always lose,” she once said. Still, there are slivers of triumph here. It’s a tough but solid hour, with English sub-titles. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 25, 2020
Stories

For “lost cause” rebel, the fight goes on

For Michel Warschawski, the impression was instant.
He was watching activists protest their Israeli government. Then he spotted “a short, little woman, beautiful” in mini-skirt and boots. She clanged keys and yelled curses – ”words I’d never heard before …. I was speechless.”
He promptly joined the group; a year-and-a-half later, he and Lea Tesemel started dating. Now, 50-some years later, they’re still together(shown here) — married, with two kids and seven grandkids. At 75, she’s a busy lawyer — profiled in “POV: Advocate,” at 10 p.m. Monday (July 27) on PBS (check local listings) – who keeps tackling impossible missions. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 24, 2020