Mike Hughes

Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 13: Basketball soars; the dead keep walking

1) Basketball. At 6 p.m. ET, CBS has an hour announcing the brackets in the NCAA tourney. Before that, there are still conference tournaments to settle. On CBS. It’s the Atlantic 10 at 1 p.m. ET and the Big Ten (shown here in a previous game) at 3:30; on ESPN, it’s the SEC at 1 and the American at 3:15. Also, ESPN2 has the Ivy League at noon. In each case, the winner gets an automatic tourney spot; in most, the loser will get one, too. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 11, 2022
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for March 14: Finales for “Bachelor,” “Alien,” more

1) “The Bachelor” finale, 8-10 p.m. today and Tuesday, ABC. Last week, Clayton Echard planned to spend “fantasy suite” nights with the final three women. The first night, he told Rachel Recchia (a pilot, shown here) that he loves her. The second, he told Gabby Windey he’s falling in love with her. The third, he found that Susie Evans was unhappy about the first two, even after he explained that “I am the most in love with you.” She ended up leaving, maybe forever. Now the show has four hours to straighten this all out. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 10, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 11: Let’s be charmed or turn red

1) “Charmed” season-opener, 8 p.m., CW. This show could have shattered when Madeleine Mantock (who played Macy) left. Harry lost his lover, Mel and Maggie lost their sister, the “power of three” was broken. But now comes a terrific hour that seems to make the show better than ever. We meet a mechanic and graffiti artist (shown here), smart, sturdy and self-reliant. This hour wastes too much time in denial, but sweeps “Charmed” in some intriguing directions. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 9, 2022
Stories

A “silly” actor conquers a deep, disturbing role

By now, we know Samuel L. Jackosn as a fun guy.
He’s does all those commercials, alone and with Spike Lee and Charles Barkley. He’s Nick Fury in Marvel shows; he hosts award shows for movies, sports and videogames. He does the cartoon voices of a dog, a dinosaur a superhero and more.
So it’s a detour to see him in “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey” (shown here), which arrives Friday (March 11) on Apple TV+. Here is Jackson, 73, as a 93-year-old man, clinging to tiny shards of his memory. Was he able to retain his fun side?
“Yeah, I’m not a method actor,” he said. Between scenes, colleagues saw “how silly I can be.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 8, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 10: Be positive about this star’s funny show

1) “B Positive” season-finale, 9 p.m., CBS. One of TV’s best – and most undernoticed – comedies wraps its second season. As Gina, Annaleigh Ashford brings a Lucy-like touch, mixing intelligence with a random/vague outlook. On Broadway, Ashford has had two Tony nominations and a win (shown here); on TV, the Emmys and others have ignored her. This season, Gina bought the retirement home where she used to work; tonight, she considers selling it. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 8, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 9: opening night for “Survivor,” more

1) “Survivor” opener (shown here), 8-10 p.m., CBS. It’s the 42nd edition, ranging from a 19-year-old Ivy League student to a 58-year-old retired firefighter. There are 18 people in all, some coming from light-hearted jobs – a waitress, a pageant coach, a fitness consultant. Others include a therapist, a veterinarian, a data scientist and a Yale Law School grad, working as a clerk for a judge. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 7, 2022
News and Quick Comments

“Snowfall”: drug-dealers, danger and, especially, family

We expect characters to change a bit, to get older and slower and maybe wiser.
Still, few have done it with the dizzying speed of Franklin Saint, the centerpiece of “Snowfall” (shown here). When the series started, he was a brainy teen with a strong college future; in this fifth season, he’s been flying a private plane and ruling a business, turning drug deals into real-estate schemes.
Is anything unchanged? “He still loves his family,” Damson Idris, who plays him, told the Television Critics Association. “Despite the animosity …. family has been the thing that’s kept him afloat.”
That’s clear in the season’s fourth episode, which airs at 10 p.m. Wednesday (March 9) on FX, reruns hourly until 2 a.m., then goes to Hulu. Franklin insists everyone catch the welcome-home dinner for his mother; we find big changes in his: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 7, 2022
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 8: We may love hating Pam

1) “The Thing About Pam” opener, 10:01 p.m., NBC. After playing a beloved person (Judy Garland), Renee Zellweger deftly pivots to play a behated (or some such word) one. In small-town Missouri, Pam Hupp injected herself into people’s lives; sometimes, they ended up dead and she ended up with money. It’s a story that has fascinated true-crime buffs; now Zellweger (shown here) buries herself in prosthetics, accent and a richly hate-able persona. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 6, 2022
Stories

From podcast to ‘Pam’: a true-crime obsession

For Renee Zellweger, this began as a mercy mission for her dog. Then it led to a dream role.
Now she stars in NBC’s “The Thing About Pam” (shown here). It airs at 10:01 p.m. on six Tuesdays, starting March 8), eyeing murder cases that center on Pam Hupp.
“I binged the podcast, actually, when I was driving up and down the freeway, going to take my dog to get his hip replaced in San Francisco,” Zellweger told the Television Critics Association. “I couldn’t believe it …. It was like these escalating absurdities.”
Soon, she wanted to portray Hupp; producer Chris McCumber said that got his attention. “When a two-time Oscar-winner calls and says, ‘I’m obsessed with this story and I want to play Pam and I want to produce, ‘you say ‘Yes.’” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 5, 2022