Day: April 26, 2021

“Handmaid’s Tale” returns (at last)

The annoying thing about high-quality television is that it takes so much time to make.
Other shows can churn out 100 episodes without a thought. (Literally.) But “The Handmaid’s Tale” (shown here) – which finally returns to Hulu on Wednesday (April 28) – takes almost forever.
The first three seasons totaled only 36 episodes, while getting heaps of praise and awards. The fourth arrives 20 months after the third ended; it has only 10 episodes, three of them on opening night.
Part of that involved a six-month COVID shut-down and the changes that followed, producer Bruce Miller told the Television Critics Association. “We were constantly making adjustments to the script.” Read more…

Oscar telecast: Lotsa talk, little fun

My favorite Academy Award winners this year were Anthony Hopkins and Ann Roth.
Not that I particularly thought they were best in their categories (actor and costumes) … but because they weren’t there. That meant two fewer speeches in this acceptance marathon.
Lots of jobs have been eliminated during this difficult year, but one task was absolutely vital to our happiness. That’s the bandleader who plays music when it’s time for someone to quit talking.
This year? No leader … and no band … and no end to the speeches. Read more…

Best-bets for April 28: Biden or Maris or Nancy Drew

1) Presidential speech, 9 p.m. ET, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS and news channels. There’s no official State of the Union speech in the first year, but most presidents do a variation. Two days shy of the 100-day mark, Joe Biden has his turn. Networks have set aside two hours for the speech plus the Republican response and news analysis; in western time zones, they’ll give two primetime hours to local stations. Either way, we’ll list some 9 p.m. alternatives (including “Nancy Drew,” shown here) at the end. Read more…