Mike Hughes

News and Quick Comments

Luna launches Kimmel’s guest-host summer

A TV tradition — guest hosts of late-night shows — returns this summer.
Jimmy Kimmel has announced a full line-up of people to take his spot, at 11:35 p.m. weekdays on ABC.That starts the week of June 23 with Diego Luna (shown here), then includes such varied souls as Fortune Feimster and Jelly Roll.
Johnny Carson used to have a busy roster of guest hosts, including Jay Leno, Joan Rivers, David Brenner and more. That idea fell out of favor until 2020, when Kimmel — after working year-round for 18 years — decided to spend summers with his family. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 20, 2025
Stories

“Gilded Age” flips the money and power

As “The Gilded Age” returns, we see two approaches to life. There’s the:
— American view: Money is really quite essential; and
— Old-world view: Even without money, there’s class and privilege and such.
“I’m always rather fascinated by people who pretend that the loss of money … doesn’t affect them at all,” said Julian Fellowes, the series creator.
As the third season begins (9 p.m. Sunday, June 22, on HBO and Max), that’s the situation for Agnes (Christine Baranski, second from left in this poster) Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 20, 2025
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for June 21: It’s Minecraft’s night

1) “A Minecraft Movie” (2025), 8 p.m., HBO. A doorknob salesman (Jack Black) ends up in an alternate world. Then a game-store guy (Jason Momoa, shown here, center) finds a portal. That may sound silly, but it has helped revive movie theaters. The opening week more than doubled predictions; now close to $1 billion worldwide, the comedy has just reached Max and adds HBO. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 19, 2025
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for June 20: Janis and Jaws, Minecraft and more

1) “Janis Ian: Breaking Silence,” 9 p.m., PBS. Observing other people’s lives, Ian wrote and sang “Society’s Child” (about inter-racial romance) and the Grammy-winning “At Seventeen” (about a plain teen). Her own love life wasn’t a subject until later, when she discussed her now-wife. This film skillfully blends re-enactments and comments by Ian (shown here), now 74. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 17, 2025
News and Quick Comments

ABC plans a country cascade

For one long, busy evening, TV will break out of its summer slumber.
That’s when ABC has its annual “CMA Fest” concert. Over three hours (8-11 p.m. June 26), it will have 30 songs from country stars, from Adkins and Aldean to Zach Top and Zimmerman.
There will be serious moments (Scotty McCreery singing “Five More Minutes,” for instance), but there will also be Trace Adkins (shown here) singing “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk.” Country music is like that. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 17, 2025
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for June 19: new episodes of mystery, drama, cartoons

1) “Poker Face,” Peacock. The lure of a rent-control apartments can inspire many odd choices, including murder. That sets up an exceptionally good episode for Charlie (Natasha Lyonne, shown here in a previous episode). Awkwafina, Alia Shawkat and David Alan Grier are guest stars. Also streaming today is Netflix’s “The Waterfront,” a drama that stars Holt McCallany and Maria Bello. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 17, 2025
Stories

Patience and Purvis: kindred spirits, and yet …

These two women seem to have everything in common. They’re young, autistic, heading into new worlds.
And yet, they’re also opposites.
Patience Evans (shown here) is fictional, the compelling central character in “Patience,” at 8 p.m. Sundays on PBS. Ella Maisy Purvis, 22, is the actress who plays her.
“I’m very different from her, but I’m also very similar,” she said, by Zoom. “There are no gray areas with us.”
They offer proof that autism really is a spectrum, and a huge one. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 16, 2025
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for June 18: comedies (really) and romance

1) “Shifting Gears,” 8-10 p.m., ABC. During a tough time for comedies, this has started well; two comedy pros work with fairly clever scripts. Now here are reruns of the first four episodes. Tim Allen plays an auto-shop owner, widowed and cranky; his estranged daughter (Kat Dennings) arrives with her kids. Soon, he’s at their new school (shown here) and she’s working at the shop. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 16, 2025