Day: September 6, 2023

Season preview: Against the odds, dramas debut

.(This has been updated.)
Each new TV season seems to stir optimism.
It’s sort of like each first date or job interview, only without the breath-freshener.
We expect the best; each season could bring the next “Seinfeld or “ER” or “West Wing.” Even when we get the next “Dweebs” or “Hello, Larry” or “My Mother the Car,” we’re hopeful.
But what about the season that starts this month, amid writers’ and actors’ strikes? The streaming and premium-cable networks, working far in advance, are still OK, but what does regular TV have to offer?
A little. There are shows (including “The Irrational,” shown here) that started filming before the strikes …. And ones that have already aired overseas …. And reality and game shows – lots of them.
Read more…

Best-bets for Sept. 8: great women in fact and fiction

1) “American Masters,” 9-11 p.m., PBS. Bella Abzug (shown here) reached Congress at full-speed. She “came there with a sledge hammer,” says former Rep. Charles Rangel. By her own account, she “always had a decent sense of outrage”; by a friend’s account, she “had an ego the size of Montana.” Alternately screaming at and charming her aides, she pushed key legislation involving equal opportunity. Here’s an excellent profile of a bigger-than-life personality. Read more…