Mike Hughes

Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for Jan. 16: a busy week for comedy

1) “Night Court” debut, 8 and 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, NBC. Here are key pieces of past comedy hits: There’s “Night Court” and John Larroquette, who won four straight Emmys as Dan Fielding, before withdrawing from consideration. And there’s Melissa Rauch – Bernadette on “The Big Bang Theory” – playing the new judge. She wants Fielding back (they’re shown here) — but this time handling the defense. The result is big and broad … and, at times, quite funny Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 14, 2023
News and Quick Comments

FX and AMC push forward, against a streamer surge

The TV world keeps transforming. Streamers soar; broadcast networks stumble.
But what about all of those in-between – the basic channels that come free to cable subscribers?
“The basic-cable business is really struggling to compete,” John Landgraf, whose FX domain includes the upcoming “Snowfall” (shown here) told the Television Critics Association. “I think FX sand AMC are kind of holding the fort right now.”
Both looked potent in his staff’s tabulation of critics’ top-10 lists for 2022. FX was No. 2, trailing only the HBO Max streamer; AMC had the No. 1 individual show – the final season of “Better Call Saul.” And both had impressive lineups to show the TCA: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 13, 2023
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 15: awards, debuts and (of course) football

1) Critics Choice Awards, 7-10 p.m., CW. Five days after the Golden Globes, here’s another show honoring the best in movies and TV. This one is hosted by Chelsea Handler, with Jeff Bridges getting a lifetime award. Best-movie nominees include the “Top Gun” and “Avatar” sequels. plus “Elvis” (shown here), “Tar” “Fabelmans,” “Glass Onion,” “Babylon,” “RRR,” “Women Talking,”“The Banshees of Inishien” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 13, 2023
Stories

Basketball bounced him toward “Will Trent” stardom

These days, Ramon Rodriguez’s world is all about crimesolving.
On “Will Trent” (shown here), at 10 p.m. Tuesdays on ABC, he stars as a cop with many minuses – dyslexia, rough childhood, stern surface – and one great plus: He seems to see everything, listen to everyone.
“I wanted him to be a believable, multi-faceted man,” novelist Karin Slaughter said. Many readers “really love him and think he’s sexy, … because he listens to women.”
But for years, Rodriguez’s life had nothing to do with this. “I didn’t want to be an actor …. Basketball was my biggest passion,” he told the Television Critics Association. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 12, 2023
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 14: heroes of fact, fiction & football

1) Football, 4:30 p.m. ET, Fox; and 8:15 p.m., NBC. The college season has finally finished, but the pros are just starting their play-offs. That starts now with San Francisco (shown here) hosting Seattle and then Jacksonville hostingh the Los Angeles Chargers. There are three more games Sunday, plus Monday Night Football. The six winners will then join the two top-seeded teams; all will be two wins from the Super Bowl. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 12, 2023
News and Quick Comments

Just what we need — one more TV +

Americans now have one more choice in their +-filled lives.
They’ve already confronted Disney+, Paramount+, Discovery+, AMC+ and, for a brief blip, CNN+. Now – starting Sunday (Jan. 15) – they have MGM+.
This one has a flashier name than most. (MGM is “one of the most venerable and beloved brands in the history of our industry,” claimed Michael Wright, the MGM+ president; one of its first new shows, “Murf the Surf,” shown here, reflects ’60s-style pizzaz.) It also has a smaller impact; unlike some of its plus-pals, it:
— Is a new name for an existing service, Epix. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 11, 2023
News and Quick Comments

A golden night for a long-delayed comeback

It was one of those neat, full-circle moments:
The first Golden Globe of the night went to Ke Huy Quan (shown here), for “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.” He thanked Steve Spielberg, who gave him his great roles (“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “Goonies”); he also granted that his career went stagnant after that.
And the last Globe of the night went to Spielberg. His “Fabelmans” was named the best drama movie, shortly he won for best-director. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 11, 2023
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Jan. 13: Bode, blazes, “Blue Bloods”

1) “Fire Country,” 9 p.m. CBS. A quick success, this is near the top 10 in the Nielsen ratings and has been renewed for next season. At the core is Bode (Max Thieriot, shown here), trimming his prison sentence by fighting fires; his unit was sent to his home town, renewing old troubles. Now his ex-girlfriend and his mother face medical emergencies, after a crash creates a power outage and starts a blaze. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 11, 2023
Stories

A surgeon’s life takes a witchly turn

Rowan Mayfair has a mixed life – empty at home, busy at work.
She’s a gifted neurosurgeon, navigating a hospital filled with male egos. She doesn’t need any complications, but now there’s one more: She’s a witch who can inadvertently kill with her mind.
All of that happened in the opener of “Mayfair Witches” (shown here with Alexandra Daddario), available on AMC+. The second episode (10 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 15, on AMC and AMC+) takes it from there.
Lots of TV characters seem to find they are witches or werewolves or such. Most are young, their lives in flux anyway; author Anne Rice changed that when she created Rowan. “She’s been a good girl for her whole life,” said Esta Spalding, co-creator of the eight-week series. But then she finds “that other side of her, which is powerful and potentially destructive.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 11, 2023
Stories

From “Trek” to “Grease,” Paramount+ mines its past

If you want to start a big-time streaming service, here’s a tip: It helps to have a movie studio.
That’s what Disney+ and HBO Max do. They have treasure hunts through the Disney and Warner vaults, finding films to re-make, revise or re-imagine. And lately, Paramount+ has done the same.
Once a modest streamer called CBS All Access, it has been renamed and re-vitalized, jumping from four million subscribers (four years ago) to closer to 50 million. At Television Critics Association sessions, it offered ambitious plans, many of them linked to past Paramount hits.
“Star Trek” has been a key. Paramount+ has launched two large series (“Discovery” and “Strange New Worlds” ), an intimate one (“Picard”), an animated one (“Lower Decks”) and “Short Treks.” Now the “Next Generation” cast is re-uniting on Feb. 16, for what will be the final “Picard” season – maybe. “There is still enormous potential for narrative, in what we’ve been doing,” said star Patrick Stewart, 82, (shown here with Levar Burton). “And there are doors left open.
Meanwhile, other shows are also being mined. There’s: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / January 10, 2023