Month: January 2021

Stories

No, Dr. Harry isn’t from around here

Like most small towns – well, most small towns in TV shows – Patience, Colo., has odd folks who feel like they don’t fit in.
But in “Resident Alien” (debuting at 10 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 27, on Syfy), one guy is far odder than the rest. That’s Dr. Harry Vanderspiegle … or, to be precise, the outer-space alien who killed the doctor and then assumed his human form.
“Everybody has the same experience,” Alice Wetterlund, who plays D’arcy, a friendly bartender, told the Television Critics Association. “We’re all trying to fit in, in our own way.”
It’s just that this Harry (shown here) has to try harder. He’s not from around here. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 25, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 27: A sci-fi delight debuts

1) “Resident Alien” debut, 10 p.m., Syfy. Newcomers often have a tough time fitting in. Now imagine you’re a being (shown here) from another planet, pretending to be the guy you killed. It’s easy to look like him physically (what with shapeshifting and such), but how do you learn the attitudes? This is partly a comedy, in the Sheldon/”Big Bang” style of trying to grasp the human condition. But it’s from Steven Spielberg’s company and also offers sleek, science-fiction visuals, with gorgeous Vancouver backdrops. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 25, 2021
News and Quick Comments

“Frontline”: GOP “capitulated” to Trump

The images rippling through “Frontline” are familiar enough, with a mob (shown here in a news photo) storming the Capitol.
But beyond that, the hour (10 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26, on PBS) asks a broader question: How did these people entwine with the stately restraint of the Republican Party?
“We’re the party of Lincoln,” Bob Corker, the former Republican senator from Tennessee, says in the film. So “demonizing people because of their color or background (is) not the party I grew up in.”
It’s convenient to simply point to Donald Trump, but Charles Sykes, a conservative author and former radio host, takes a wider view: “The Republican Party completely capitulated to him.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 24, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 26: new night for ABC, old story for Trump

1) “Mixed-ish” season-opener, 9:30 p.m., ABC. Back in 1986, Bow says, her family loved “Dukes of Hazzard” – a show about White guys eluding the police in a car with a a Confederate flag. (“1986 was a really long time ago,” she decides.) She and her siblings (shown here in a previous episode), all mixed-race, had spent their early years on a commune, where race was never an issue. Now Bow’s brother is pulling off a racial deception, in an episode that’s fairly funny and sometimes serious. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 24, 2021
Stories

King played a huge rule in CNN history

Even before there was a CNN, the world knew Larry King.
Eventually, they would entwine. For 25 years, King – who died Saturday at 87 – hosted a weeknight talk show (shown here) on CNN; at times, he was the most prominent piece of an obscure network.
“Larry King really made CNN,” anchorman Wolf Blitzer said during its coverage of King on Saturday. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 23, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 25: Laughs and deadly crises

1) “Bob (Hearts) Abishola,” 8:30 p.m., CBS. This wraps up a terrific two-parter that sees the romance wobbling. Bob and Abishola are engaged … but she hasn’t shed her marriage in her native Nigeria. Now her husband (shown here, right) is here, insisting they’ll never divorce. Strong wills collide, in a funny episode. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 23, 2021
Stories

Before COVID, a town confronted deadly threat

In the news, this was strictly a spy story.
A man and his daughter were sitting on a park bench in England, when they collapsed. He was Russian, a double agent who had worked for the British; both were hit by a lethal poison developed in Russia.
There was an international furor … but behind that was the personal story that emerges in “The Salisbury Poisonings” (shown here), which starts at 10 p.m. Monday (Jan. 25) on AMC. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 23, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 24: Brady, Batwoman and witches

1) Football, 3 p.m. ET, Fox; 6:40 p.m., CBS. The conference-championship games start with two of the all-time great quarterbacks: Aaron Rodgers (shown here) and the Packers host Tom Brady and the Bucs. Combined, those men are 80 years old and (counting post-season) have passed for 1,128 touchdowns, 333 interceptions and 50,462 yards. One will go to the Super Bowl, facing the winner of the game between the Chiefs (hoping quarterback Patrick Mahomes has recovered) and the Bills. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 22, 2021
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for Jan. 25: Cable has alien, supertrain

1) “Resident Alien” debut, 10 p.m. Wednesday, Syfy. It’s always difficult for a newcomer to fit in. So imagine if you’re from another planet (shown here), pretending to be the guy you just killed. It’s easy to disguise physically (what with shapeshifting and such), but how do you learn the attitudes? This is partly a comedy, with the Sheldon-style humor of trying to grasp the human condition. But it’s from Steven Spielberg’s company and offers sleek, science-fiction visuals, with gorgeous Vancouver backdrops. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 22, 2021
Stories

She wrestles with superhero stardom

Javicia Leslie’s childhood prepared her for three careers – wrestler, martial artist or superhero,
She abandoned one after learning the World Wrestling Federation was fake. “I really thought (it) was real …. As I got older, I realized they were acting,” she told the Television Critics Association.
But now she’s merged the other two: She’s the new star (shown here) of “Batwoman” (8 p.m. Sundays on CW), flexing some martial-arts moves. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 21, 2021