Day: January 23, 2022

PBS keeps filling the music gaps

For decades, PBS has had an extra duty: It’s the main link many people have to what’s happening on Broadway and in concert halls, opera houses and more.
But lately, there’s been an added role: It’s been giving us what’s NOT happening there.
As the pandemic shut most things down, PBS kept going. It had music on rooftops, on porches, in vacant rooms and now – quite carefully – in standard concert settings.
That’s led by Luke Frazier and his American Pops Orchestra, who has rushed a dozen concerts, ranging from slim half-hours to an ambitious “Wicked” concert (shown here with Ariana Grande). Read more…

Best-bets for Jan. 25: Messy romances in fiction and fact

1) “Our Kind of People” (shown here) finale, 9 p.m., Fox. Officially, this is just the season-finale, but don’t expect it to return. Ratings have been weak and Fox didn’t order the second half of the season. The good news is that this mostly works well as a series finale; questions are answered, evil is punished, romance messes are bsettled. The bad news is that the final minute thrusts everything into permanent limbo. That’s typical of a show that kept making brash and soapy choices. Read more…