Day: April 27, 2022

It’s a world filled with hard-trying teens

Donna Schmidt realized she was in an alternate universe.
Her daughter Rachel went to Lowell, the high-achievers’ San Francisco high school that’s now featured in a compelling PBS documentary (shown here). Everything was sort of backwards.
In other schools, kids might toss their books in a corner for the weekend and focus on leisure. Not Rachel or her classmates.
“Friday, when she gets home, she would start studying,” Schmidt told the Television Critics Association, in a press conference for “Try Harder!” (10 p.m. Monday, May 2, on PBS, under the “Independent Lens” banner). “That was just the weirdest thing …. So that’s (my) Friday, too.” Read more…

Best-bets for April 29: “Magnum” is back, draft continues

1)“Magnum P.I.” return, 9 p.m., CBS. This used to be dependable on CBS, with three crime hours each Friday. Lately, that’s shrunk to two and (for the last couple weeks) just one, Now “Magnum” is back, with only its second new hour in six weeks. It borrows an idea that has worked for “X-files,” “The Godfather,” “Law & Order” and more: A guy wakes up, covered with blood and unable to remember if he’s committed a crime; Magnum and Higgins (shown here) try to find out. That’s followed by “Blue Bloods,” which this week was renewed for its 13th season. Read more…