Mike Hughes

Best-bets for April 8: A drama debuts on comedy’s big night

1) “Rebel” debut, 10 p.m., ABC. Erin Brockovich (shown here) was a law-office clerk – a former beauty-pageant winner, with no legal training – when she confronted a utility giant. Using savvy and social skills, she helped get a $333 million settlement. That was back 1993; the “Erin Brockovich” movie arrived seven years later, with Julia Roberts winning an Academy Award. Now Brockovich is one of the producers of this series, with Katey Sagal playing someone a lot like her. Read more…

Everything’s okay for autistic actress

Last year, one of TV’s best characters arrived.
Matilda, 17, was confident (sometimes), quirky (always), talented and likable. She was also autistic.
And she was, apparently, authentic. Kayla Cromer (shown here), who plays her in “Everything’s Gonna Be Okay” (10 p.m. Thursdays on Freeform, starting the second season April 8) is on the autism spectrum.
“I wasn’t coddled,” Cromer, 23, said by phone. And maybe she would have survived Matilda’s ordeal. Read more…

For dramas, familiar franchises rule

Fan of “procedurals” – the TV dramas that wrap a story at the end of each hour – can get used to this:
For now, there will be lots of spin-offs from existing franchises.
CBS recently announced two of them for next season – a new “FBI” show and a reboot of the first “CSI.” with some of the original stars, including William Petersen (shown here). That comes as NBC airs its new variation of “Law & Order.” Read more…

Best-bets for April 7: Two shows begin; ‘Hemingway” ends

1) “Kung Fu” debut, 8 p.m., CW. This reboots the 1972 series, but borrows only the basic notion: A Chinese-American studies at a monastery in China, then returns home after a teacher is slain. This time, there’s a modern spin: It’s an all-woman monastery; Nicky (shown here in a rendering) returns to San Francisco with stunning skills and a hint of the supernatural. The visuals and fights are spectacular, but “Kung Fu” also has balance: Nicky’s brother, sister and ex-boyfriend are far from her martial-arts world, adding human depth. Read more…

Meet one family’s income mega-gap

So there was Michael Colton, getting unemployment checks. That happens to writers sometimes.
And there was his twin, with a very different reality: “He sold a company for about $7 million,” Colton told the Television Critics Association.
Colton’s brotherly reaction to this? “It was all of these feelings of anxiety, mixed with pride, mixed with jealousy and insecurity.”
Then he went to his default position – comedy. The result is “Home Economics” (shown here), which debuts at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday (April 7) on ABC. Read more…

Best-bets for April 6: “Rock” romps, “Soul” is searing

1) “Young Rock,” 8 p.m., NBC. After several misfires, this show comes up with a slick and funny episode. It flashes back to when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (shown here nowadays) was a college football player … and to when action films dominated the box office. Now he has an on-campus mission that rivals the ordeals of Stallone and Schwarzenegger. That’s joined by two sub-plots, one so-so (Johnson’s grandmother returns) and one quite good (in the future, he chooses a pun-afflicted vice-presidential candidate). Read more…

Best-bets for April 5: Burns and basketball’s best

1) “Hemingway” debut, 8-10 p.m., PBS, rerunning at 10; continues through Wednesday. Here is one of the best shows of this season – or any season. Ken Burns (shown here) is at his best when tracing a big and complicated life … and few lives were bigger or more complex that Ernest Hemingway’s. He was brash and macho, yet insecure. He told about (and sometimes exaggerated) great adventures, but he also wrote fiction slowly and carefully, in a no-frills style that created classics. Read more…

Best-bets for April 4: A busy Easter, from “Atlantic” to “Zoey”

1) “Masterpiece: Atlantic Crossing” opener, 9 p.m., PBS. Martha (played by Sofia Helin, shown here) had a life of royal comfort: Her uncles were the kings of Sweden (her homeland), Denmark and Norway; her husband (also her first cousin) was Norway’s future king. They had three children and she charmed Franklin Roosevelt during a visit. Then World War II changed everything. This eight-week film (sometimes in Norwegian, with sub-titles) turns soapy in its mid-section, but starts and ends strongly. Read more…

Week’s top-10 for April 5: Great biographies and new seasons

1) “Hemingway” debut, 8 p.m. today through Wednesday, PBS, rerunning at 10. Ernest Hemingway (shown here) took a unique approach to fiction – cool, efficient, often macho. We see that often here, in brilliant passages read by Jeff Daniels. But Hemingway also molded another fiction – his own image. Yes, he was an outdoors guy, with big torso and regal visage. But he was also a doctor’s son from suburbia, an insecure guy who exaggerated his life. Ken Burns tells the story brilliantly, tracing a life of contrasts. Read more…