Month: May 2021

Best-bets for June 2: Food is an art for humans, an adventure for animals

(Here are the five TV best-bets for Wednesday, June 2; feel free to use in any form – all or some, print and/or web)

1) “MasterChef” opener, 8 p.m., Fox. On Monday, Gordon Ramsay opened “Hell’s Kitchen,” which has professional chefs and lots of yelling. Now here’s his “MasterChef,” with home chefs, a feel-good mood and even some kitchen heroes: Emeril Lagasse (shown here with Ramsay and one of the contestants, a construction worker) is the guest judge tonight; Paula Deen and others are coming up. Tonight starts the try-out phase. It’s a bumpy road, because acceptances come one at a time, arbitrarily stopping at 15. Still, these are appealing chefs we’re soon rooting for. Read more…

Best-bets for June 1: Summer champ “AGT” returns

1) “America’s Got Talent” opener, 8-10 p.m., NBC. Each summer, this has ruled the ratings, while viewing a wide and weird range of talent. At first, the results were mainstream; five of the first six champions were singers, alongside one ventriloquist. Since then, winners have included only two singers, plus two more ventriloquists, a magician, a dancer, a dog act and, last year, spoken-word poet Brandon Leake (shown here). Last year, ratings dropped a bit when COVID forced remote performances; now, however, auditioners are back on the main stage. Read more…

Best-bets for May 31: from cartoon fun to searing tragedy

1) “Housebroken” debut, 9 p.m., Fox. When the humans are gone, it seems, the pets have group therapy sessions (shown here). They range from a pokey turtle to a prideful pig, from feral cats to Honey (voiced by Lisa Kudrow), the wise poodle in charge. Honey’s housemate is a St. Bernard whose enthusiasm far exceeds his wisdom; others include a fat cat (literally) and a turtle whose love life has been on a 15-year pause. This animated show gets a bit too adult for some kids, but grown-ups will find it thoroughly clever Read more…

Best-bets for May 30: Deep emotions, dark tragedies

1) “National Memorial Day Concert” (shown here in a previous year), 8 p.m., PBS, rerunning at 9:30. Last year forced a change for this TV tradition: Live events were banned; the music and tributes were shot in advance, sometimes using reruns. The result was beautifully crafted; this year has the same approach, but with no reruns. In key settings, we’ll hear the greats of country (Alan Jackson, Vince Gill and, singing the National Anthem, Mickey Guyton), pop (Gladys Knight, Sara Bareilles, the Four Tops) and opera (Denyce Graves). Read more…

NBC’s ready to dominate summer (again)

NBC has finally announced its plans for summer – a season that has already started.
That’s a time the network has dominated in the ratings for 10 straight years, with strong prospects to do it again. It has “America’s Got Talent” and “American Ninja Warrior” and more now, pauses for the Olympics in July, then adds some goofier shows in August.
Unlike other networks, NBC waited until Wednesday (May 26) – the last day of the official TV seasons – to announce its full summer plans. “Making It” (shown here), for instance, has been listed by some sources as starting June 3; instead, it will wait until June 24. Plans include: Read more…

Week’s top-10 for May 31: Busy start to summer season

1) “America’s Got Talent” opener, 8-10 p.m. Tuesday, NBC. We’re in the summer season now – a time when “AGT” dominates the ratings. It slipped a bit last year, with remote performances; now it returns to onstage auditions … and Simon Cowell (shown here) returns after an injury. At first, traditional acts kept winning; five of the first six champions were singers, alongside one ventriloquist. Since then, however, the winners have included only two singers, plus two more ventriloquists, a magician, a dancer, a dog act and, last year, a spoken-word poet. Read more…

Best-bets for May 29: tigers, Grizzlies & Wizards

1) “China: Nature’s Ancient Kingdom” (shown here) finale, 8 p.m., BBC America. A beautifully filmed, three-week series concludes in four parks in China’s heavily populated East. One exists not far from the 25 million people in Shanghai; another is along the border, where tigers casually stroll between Russia and China. Footage ranges from a thieving chipmunk raiding a cache, to a rare gibbon swinging along treetops. That’s surrounded by other gorgeous nature scenes: “Frozen Planet” reruns are from 1 p.m. to 6 a.m. Read more…

Cruella: epic sympathy for the de Vil

It isn’t easy, we’re told, to stir sympathy for the Devil.
Or, in this case, for de Vil. But a new mega-movie, arriving Friday (May 28), manages to do it.
“Cruella” (shown here) – the story of Cruella de Vil, the “101 Dalmatians” villain – opens in movie theaters and is simultaneously available to Disney+ customers who pay an extra Premier Access fee. My advice is the same as someone said (about another film) during the Oscars: “See it on the biggest screen you can.” Read more…

Best-bets for May 28: The births of Cruella and Richie

1) “The Dick Van Dyke Show – Now in Living Color,” 8 p.m., CBS. For the second straight Friday, CBS has two episodes of this great series, with color added by computer. This pair – which also aired in 2018 – has one of the show’s flashback delights (shown here): Richie asks his parents where he came from; he soon gets a long account of the misadventures leading up to his birth. Then there’s a vacation that goes bizarrely wrong: Among other things, Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) has her toe stuck in the bathtub. Read more…

At last: We spy our pets’ secret lives

Many of us may wonder what our pets do when we’re gone.
Do they scheme and plot? … Or grumble and grouse? … Or just hit the hyper-relaxation mode?
Now a new series, “Housebroken” (shown here) has the answer: Pets conduct their own group-therapy sessions.
Yes, the show (9 p.m. Mondays on Fox, starting May 31) is a cartoon. “There’s just so much freedom in animation,” said actress-turned-producer Clea DuVall. Cats can talk, turtles can dash; she can envision big stunts that “would be half of your budget (without) animation.” Read more…