1) “Loteria Loca” debut, 9 p.m., CBS. As Jaime Camil tells it, every home in Mexico has a loteria set. It’s sort of like bingo, but with bright pictures. The game has been in Mexico for 250 years and now reaches TV, with Camil (the “Jane the Virgin” co-star) hosting and producing. This version (shown here) starts with the cards, then moves on to interactive challenges. Read more…
1) “The Simpsons” season-opener, 8 p.m., Fox. At a time when most scripted shows were detoured by strikes, this is an exception: Animated shows are done far in advance; starting tonight, Fox has four new ones on Sundays. It’s the 35th season for “The Simpsons,” which seems as sharp as ever. Homer gets a wisp of crossing-guard glory (shown here); then, of course, he takes it to excess. Read more…
1) “Quantum Leap” season-opener, 8 p.m. Wednesday, NBC. After a good first season, “Leap” started filming this second one before the strikes. It also changed tone: Now Ben (shown here in first season) is stranded, without his fiancee’s hologram to help him. And now there’s humor; he has just crash-landed with a chaotic crew. It’s a sharp hour with excellent guest stars, including the stars of “Manifest” (Melissa Roxburgh) and “Midnight, Texas” (Francois Arnaud). Read more…
The latenight shows are finally returning, with new episodes.
Most of them — ABC’s Jimmy Kimnmel, CBS’ Stephen Colbert, NBC’s Jimmy Fallon (shown here) and Seth Meyers – plan to start Monday (Oct. 2). Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” arrives two weeks later, leaving only “Saturday Night Live” undecided.
Those changes follow the return of HBO’s weekly shows, with Bill Maher on Friday (Sept. 29) and John Oliver on Sunday (Oct. 1). Read more…
1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m, NBC. Before he became a pop-culture figure (by dating Taylor Swift), Travis Kelce (shown here0 was merely a football star. Three weeks after his Kansas City Chiefs beat his brother Jason’s Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl, he hosted the episode that reruns today. It also includes Jason and the music guest, Kelsea Ballerini. Read more…
For a young actress in her first big role, this was a new world.
Emma Naomi (shown here with Ben Miller) was in Belgium to co-star in “Professor T,” the mystery series that airs at 8 p.m. Sundays on PBS. What struck her about the place?
“The horses,” she said. “There are horses everywhere.”
She’s a city kid who grew up in London, the daughter of two nurses. For “T,” she was often living in Antwerp, which seemed familiar enough; “it’s a fashion capital, lots of coffee shops.” Still, many of the locations took her into the horse-filled countryside. Read more…
ABC has finally answered a key question: What will fill that gaping hole on Sundays?
In its makeshift, strike-time schedule, the network simply listed “Wonderful World of Disney” movies for 8-11 p.m. Sundays, starting Oct. 1. Still, it never said which movies and when.
Now we know; the early line-up has three films from 2021, a vintage year for Disney: Read more…
1) “A Song for Cesar,” 10-11:30 p.m., PBS. Cesar Chavez (shown here), friends says, loved to dance. He savored jazz and comedy; he was “this guy with an urban soul.” So his farmworkers’ movement rippled with music – from the back of flat-bed trucks, then in arenas. This vibrant film offers brief bursts of music. Much of it is way too brief; still, it’s fascinating to see the show bounce between a white-haired musician and his young self, almost 60 years ago. Read more…
1) “Hell’s Kitchen” opener, 8 p.m., Fox. After lots of flash and hype about the American dream, we meet the contestants – an appealing bunch of dreamers. At one extreme is a young Texan (shown here, left), now a chef in Chicago, who’s also a professional quidditch player. At another is a Mississippi chef, a single mom raising her six children and her sister’s three. They make their specialties and Gordon Ramsay seems genial enough. Next week, he’ll start screaming. Read more…
This is clearly not the way Hollywood works.
“Reservation Dogs” (shown here) was filmed in small-town Oklahoma, using lots of locals. It starred four young indigenous actors, two making their professional debuts. Its style was casual and natural and …
And then it all worked. The show has its series finale Wednesday on Hulu, where people can watch all three seasons. It has won a Peabody Award, two American Film Institute Awards and nominations from the Golden Globes, the Television Critics Association and more.
Much of the credit goes to its creators (Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi) and its other writers and directors. But some goes to that surprising cast. Read more…
