Mike Hughes

News and Quick Comments

On the Fourth, a world emerges festively

(This is an updated version of the previous 4th-of-July story, now including NBC and more of the performers.)
Sure, you could consider this year’s 4th-of-July mega-concert to be same-old, same-old.
After all, this is the 41st year for “A Capitol Fourth” on PBS …. and the 83rd year since July 4 became a paid federal holiday … and the 245th since the Declaration of Independence was signed.
But Ali Stroker, one of the performers, feels this time is different. “In the re-emerging, we have the option to make the world we’d like to have.”
She’s emerging from a year on pause. A Tony-winner (shown here on her winning night), she suddenly had no Broadway to audition for, fewer places to perform. “Singing in my bathroom, to my laptop, wasn’t necessarily prime conditions.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 28, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for June 30: “Bold” exit, bat expert

1) “The Bold Type” series finale, 10 p.m, Freeform. With smart characters and sleek visuals, this has seemed like the ideal show for Freeform’s young-adult target. At a magazine, three women became friends; Jane (right) writes, Sutton (center) designs, Kat (left) does tech. Now the network promises “big changes and hard decisions”; a brief sampling focuses on Jane: She bumps into Zach, whom she did a story on previously; also, she tries to nudge Kat into reviving the romance with Adina. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 28, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for June 29: Cable goes big or goes quiet

1) “Motherland: Fort Salem,” 10 p.m., Freeform. Those first days of college can always seem rough – especially when this is War College (shown here) and everyone is a witch. Also, there’s a quick test that makes even an escape room seem easy. Complicating things: As they start classes, the friends still don’t know why, in a crucial moment, they were able to link explosively. It’s a good episode in an intriguing series. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 27, 2021
News and Quick Comments

“The Ice Road”: A bumpy ride through a frozen Hell

For fans of “Highway to Hell” and “Ice Road Truckers” and more reality, this all seems familiar.
Trucks get stuck in the snow, their wheels spinning … They teeter into a ditch … The ice buckles under them, preparing to dump them into the lake … Bikers zoom alongside, attacking the driver … And …
OK, maybe some of those don’t happen much in real life. That’s why we have fiction and Liam Neeson, whose movie characters keep having some very bad days.
His latest film is “The Ice Road” (shown here), which has just arrived on Netflix. It’s the worst nightmare of any driver’s ed instructor, times (approximately) a thousand. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 26, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for June 28: Dating becomes a complex game

1) “Celebrity Dating Game,” 10 p.m., ABC. The “Dating Game” franchise has been around since 1965, but this is apparently a first for it – a contestant considering people from both genders. That’s Demi Burnett (shown here), whom viewers have seen dating a man (Colton Underwood) on “The Bachelor” and a woman (Kristian Haggerty) on “Bachelor in Paradise.” Now, answering her questions, will be both options. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 26, 2021
Stories

The sharks are back — big, scary and maybe magnificent

Sharks are ready to consume our TV sets … again.
The 33rd Shark Week will be July 11-18 on Discovery and Discovery+. Spanning that and beyond is the eighth SharkFest, July 5-31 on National Geographic, Aug. 2-13 on Nat Geo Wild, and on Disney+.
Along the way, we’ll hear ominous things. A shark, one victim says, is “a submarine with teeth.” And it’s a big, fast one at that. “The first great white shark I saw was like a freight train,” said Valerie Taylor (shown here in the 1970s), who has spent generations surrounded by sharks.
But we’ll also hear actor Chris Hemsworth praise “the serene beauty of this magnificent creature.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 26, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for June 27: Great night for music, “Monday,” “Masterpiece”

1) BET Awards, 8-11:30 p.m., BET, MTV and VH1; BET also has a preview at 7 and a rerun at midnight. Taraji Henson hosts, Queen Latifah gets a lifetime award and there’s a barrage of performers. They included Andra Day (shown here in her Billie Holiday movies), H.E.R., DJ Khaled, City Girls, Migos and gospel’s Kirk Franklin. Others range from Lil Baby and Lil Durk to Roddy Ricch and Moneybagg Yo! They include Bree Runway, Tone Stith, Jazmine SuIlivan and Rapsody. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 25, 2021
Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for June 28: a holiday’s flashy finale

1) “A Capitol Fourth” (shown here), 8 p.m. Sunday, PBS, rerunning at 9:30. This should be a festive night for a re-opening world, with performances spanning the country. It will be Alan Jackson in Nashville; Jennifer Nettles and Auli’i Cavalho in New York; Jimmy Buffett, Cynthia Erivo, Pentatonix and Train in California. In Washington, D.C., will be fireworks, plus the National Orchestra, Gladys Knight, Mickey Guyton, Jimmie Allen, Ali Stroker, Laura Osnes and (doing the National Anthem) Renee Fleming. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 24, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for June 26: Miley & Monk on “SNL”

1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. It’s a good weekend for Miley Cyrus fans. On Friday, her Pride Month concert started streaming on Peacock. Cyrus, who identifies as pansexual, sings her hits and a Madonna medley; her guests include Mickey Guyton, Maren Morris, Little Big Town, Orville Peck and Brothers Osborne. And in this rerun, she’s the music guest (shown here). The host is Elon Musk, who made a bit of “SNL” history by saying he’s the show’s first host with Asperger syndrome. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 24, 2021
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for June 25: soap stars, track trials, Vienna vibes

1) Daytime Emmy Awards, 8-10 p.m., CBS. For eight years, this was relegated to TV’s hinterlands — small cable channels (HLN, Pop) or just online. Last year, it returned to CBS, for a drab night of at-home acceptance speeches, with nominees. That format returns now, possibly with better results; Sheryl Underwood hosts. Categories include soap operas, talk shows and a chance for one more Emmy for Alex Trebek (shown here), who died last July at 80; it would be his eighth win and his third in a row. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 23, 2021