Week’s top 10 for April 4: Ben, basketball, BBC
1) “Benjamin Franklin,” 8 p.m. today and Tuesday, PBS, repeating at 10. Here is Ken Read more…
Mike Hughes
At 71, she has overemployment, globally
The world has had plenty of reasons for actors to be unemployed. There’s Covid, halting Read more…
Best-bets for April 2: It’s final-four time
1) Basketball, 6:09 and 8:40 p.m. ET, TBS, TNT and TruTV. We’re down to the final four in the college tournament … only one of which was top-seeded in its quadrant. That’s Kansas, which faces Villanova (a No. 2 seed) in the opener. Then another No. 2 seed – Duke, whose coach (Mike Krzyzewski, shown here) is in his final season, going for his sixth national title – faces a surprise, the 8th-seeded North Carolina. Read more…
Best-bets for April 1: crime shows and an opera
1) “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” 9 p.m., PBS. Long before his big-city fame – including as graphic director and columnist for the New York Times – Charles Blow grew up in an impoverished family in rural Louisiana. That became the subject of his memoir, adapted into this opera (shown here). The Metropolitan Opera’s first work by a Black composer (Terence Blanchard), it opened the Met’s post-Covid season. The result ripples with passion, pain and powerhouse music. Read more…
Country kid stirred a big-city opera
Chances are, this isn’t what a kid in rural Louisiana expects:
Some day, his youth will be turned into … an opera. A real one, opening the Metropolitan Opera season, with bejeweled fans applauding and bespectacled critics praising.
That’s what happened to Charles Blow (shown here). His memoir — “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” at 9 p.m. Friday (April 1) on PBS – was the first show after the Met’s long Covid break. Read more…
The Oscars show was a success … no, really
Surveying the glittery chaos of Oscar night, ABC took a common approach: Declare victory.
The ratings “skyrocketed,” the network said. So did the social-media responses; this was the biggest entertainment special in two years.
That’s true … sort of. I’d also add that the show was an overall success; sucker-punch aside, it had clever hosts (shown here), strong music and, as usual, a few flaws. But first, those numbers: Read more…
Best-bets for March 31: comedies, new and not
1) “How We Roll” debut, 9:30 p.m., CBS. In real life, Tom Smallwood was laid off after a half-year at an auto factory near Detroit. At 31, he made one last stab at a bowling career — and succeeded. Now that’s been turned into a comedy that’s OK, but no match for CBS’ other Thursday shows. There are some good moments from Pete Holmes, Katie Lowes (as his wife; they’re shown here) and Chi McBride (as the bowling-alley owner), but his mom is poorly written and played. Read more…
Best-bets for March 30: crack crisis, Covid crisis, more
1) “Snowfall,” 10 p.m., FX; rerunning at 11:02, 12:04, 1:06. We’re in the aftershocks of the fierce attack that almost wiped out Franklin’s crack-dealing empire. Louise and others want revenge on Kane (whose brother Kevin was killed by Franklin, who’s shown here in a previous episode) and Peaches. Leon resists. “It’s about Black bodies in the street,” he says. “It’s about our people wiping each other out.” And – in a strong, pivotal episode for him – the oft-violent Jerome is torn between the two. Read more…
Macho moment mars Oscar night
Toxic masculinity keeps intruding on life.
It turns athletes into gladiators, politicians into fools, Ukraine into rubble. And now it has distracted from the Academy Award telecast. Read more…
Comedy springs from a working-guy gamble
In the real-life, regular-guy world of Tom Smallwood, this was a long shot.
He was a laid-off autoworker, the son of an autoworker, in a factory town. His people got steady paychecks, but he was going to take a chance. At 31, married with one child, he took a detour.
He “decided, against all odds, to follow his dream of becoming a professional bowler,” said Brian d’Arcy James, an actor-turned-producer. That’s at the core of “How We Roll” (shown here), the comedy that debuts at 9:30 p.m. Thursday (March 31) on CBS. Read more…