Month: April 2022

Stories

English journey made “Better Things” a better show

For most shows, this would have been simple:
One of the actors couldn’t get there, due to Covic concerns. It was time to write her out and move on.
But that’s not how “Better Things” (shown here) works. For its final season, it took elaborate steps — peaking with an episode that airs at 10 p.m. Monday (April 18), then moves to Hulu. “This would have been woefully incomplete without it,” Adlon said in a Television Critics Association virtual press conference. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 14, 2022
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for April 18: Farewell to “Black-ish,” “Sanditon,” more

1)”Black-ish” finale, 9 p.m. Tuesday, ABC. One of TV’s most important comedies wraps its eight-year run. “Black-ish” has offered fresh insights about a Black family in upper-income suburbia. It’s had 25 Emmy nominations (including four for best comedy series), a Peabody, a Television Critics Association win for best comedy and a Golden Globe for Tracee Ellis Ross. Now, with his parents leaving and his kids eyeing colleges, Dre (Anthony Anderson, shown here with Ross) considers a big change – and gets advice from gymnast Simone Biles. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 13, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for April 15: Feel-good dancers, feel-bad cops

1) “Come Dance With Me” debut, 8-10 p.m., CBS. An OK dance competition gets buried in a sea of feel-good excess. Kids who are serious dancers – prizewinners, maybe professionals – team with parents who aren’t (shown here). The performances are quite good; after all, half the dancers are talented and they’re give excellent costumes, choreography, music and lighting. But “Come Dance” pushes too hard; it feels forced, surrounding acts with emotion and praise. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 13, 2022
News and Quick Comments

“Password” joins summer spree of game shows

There will be another new game show this summer – except this one is also very old. It’s “Password,” which began 61 years ago.
NBC’s summer version – hosted by Keke Palmer — will continue the basic plan of pairing celebrities with regular folks. But Jimmy Fallon (shown here playing with Jim Parsons), who is also the producer, will be one of the celebrities in each hour; the last of the eight episodes will be all-celebrity. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 13, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for April 14: glimpses of Swayze stardom

1) ”Superstar,” 10 p.m., ABC. Patrick Swayze grew up in Texas, which is football country. A knee injury ended any shot at an athletic scholarship, so he spent more time dancing for his mother, who had a jazz-ballet company and a dance studio. He took over the lead role in Broadway’s “Grease,” then went on to “Dirty Dancing” (shown here) and movie stardom, before dying of cancer at 57. This hour includes Demi Moore and Tony Goldwyn (his “Ghost” co-stars), Debbie Allen and Jaclyn Smith (his mother’s students) and more. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 12, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for April 13: Life’s tough in LA and the Arctic

1) ”Snowfall,” 10 p.m., FX; reruns at 11:05, 12:09, 1:13. Last week, the wedding party of Jerome and Louanne was spiked with LSD. It was a bizarre detour, but it led to revelations for Franklin (shown here in a previous episode) and Leon. Their stories continue this week, along with a fierce sub-plot: Louanne sent a crooked cop to kill a rival. Now opposite instincts are juggled: There might be peace and a crime-free life … or maybe retribution, with gang warfare in Los Angeles. It’s a strong hour, leading to a huge – and crowded — season-finale next week. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 11, 2022
Stories

“First Lady” visits personal/political power

This is a tiny slice of Americana – just 41 people, spread over 232 years.
Now a new series views some of the most intriguing: “The First Lady” (9 p.m. Sundays on Showtime, starting on Easter) spends its first season with three women. Michelle Pfeiffer is Betty Ford, Viola Davis is Michelle Obama and Gillian Anderson is Eleanor Roosevelt … who was sort of at the turning point.
“Eleanor was, in my mind, the first modern First Lady,” said Cathy Schulman, who produces the series and wrote the second of this year’s 10 episodes. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 10, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for April 12: finales for “Abbott” and Pam

1) “Abbott Elementary” season-finale, 9 p.m., ABC. This clever little show has been a bright spot for ABC, getting decent ratings, especially in the 18-49 age group. Now it wraps its first season, a week before “Black-ish” (9:30) ends its eighth and final year.  Tonight, the Abbott school has its annual trip to the zoo (shown here), with lives in transition. Janine faces a big choice … Tariq has been offered a job in New York … and Barbara ponders her future, after learning that her favorite reptile (a tuatara) has been retired because of age. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 10, 2022
Stories

It’s dance time, with or without a pandemic

Let’s consider this a benefit from the pandemic.

Yes, the lockdown made people better at laptops and Zoom calls and maybe home-cooking. Beyond that, it drove them to dance … setting up “Come Dance with Me” (shown here0, which debuts at 8 p.m. Friday (April 15) on CBS.

“This was pre-pandemic when we first got into it,” LL Cool J, one of the producers, told the Television Critics Association. “Even at that time, I felt … the world could use a nice family show that people could dance to.”

Then the world changed, said Chris O’Donnell, another producer. “Covid hit and Tiktok hit and all of a sudden, we found ourselves sheltering in place with our families and doing our little dance moves.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 9, 2022