TV networks are making changes at blitz speed, to keep up with the coronavirus situation.
Now ABC has added a primetime special and a latenight emphasis … CBS’ country-music awards have been delayed until September … and PBS has said there will be “Baseball” (the Ken Burns series, shown here) when there’s no actual baseball being played.
The changes, in chronological order of impact: Read more…
1) “Finian’s Rainbow” (1968), 10:30 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies. With many St. Patrick’s Day events canceled, people can settle for TCM’s full day of Irish films. Logically, there are two that John Ford filmed in his parents’ homeland – “Rising of the Moon” (1965) at 4:30 p.m. ET and John Wayne’s “The Quiet Man” (1952) ar 8. But no, you don’t have to be Irish: Before directing “Godfather” films, Francis Coppola made “Finian’s Rainbo,”(shown here with Fred Astaire and Tommy Steele), a gem of a musical with zesty visuals and bursts of satire. Read more…
1) “Roswell, New Mexico” season-opener, 9 p.m., CW. We’re used to death having a certain permanence, but not here. A decade ago, Liz’s sister died – apparently as a drunken driver, also responsible for the deaths of two friends. Later, we learned that Noah was responsible; Max (Nathan Parsons, shown here with Jeanine Mason as Liz) found Rosa’s well-preserved body and resurrected her. (Outer-space aliens can do that, apparently.) Tonight, we find Rosa alive, Max and Noah dead (for now) and Isobel – Max’s sister, Noah’s widow – bitter. Read more…
Here’s a tiny smidgen of good news, amid a cascade of postponements:
“Frozen 2” (shown here) will reach the Disney+ screening service on Sunday (March 15), three months sooner than expected. Read more…
This is the sort of timing that no one could plan – we hope.
Showtime had set Sunday, March 15, as the season-opener of “Black Monday” (shown here). That’s a loose drama-comedy, centering on the 1987 stock market crash.
Then, on March 13, newspaper headlines proclaimed the worst Wall Street crash since 1987. Hey, all we know is that the fictional crash is a lot more fun than the real one. Read more…
As the coronavirus impact grows, TV is making quick adjustments.
CBS and ABC are filling the voids left by canceled basketball games. That means more reruns, plus spreading the two-hour “Hawaii Five-0” (shown here) finale over two weeks.
And PBS has a helpful reminder: We’ve been through much worse. Changes include: Read more…
1) “Westworld” season-opener, 9 p.m., HBO. This show takes its time. It was 16 months between the end of the first season and the start of the second … and another 20 months after the second. “Westworld” has drawn praise– 41 Emmy nominations, with seven wins – and confusion. Now the sentient androids have escaped. Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood, shown here in a previous season) is in futuristic Los Angeles with a guy (Aaron Paul); Maeve (Emmy-winner Thandie Newton) is in a different park, based on Fascist Italy. Read more…
1) The Blacklist” return, 8 and 9 p.m. Friday, NBC. After three months on the shelf, this smart, twisty show has episodes that are opposites, despite some common threads. Both involve a valuable gold box; both link Red (James Spader, shown here in a previous episode) with an imposing blonde – Gillian Alexy the first hour, Joely Redgrave the second. But that first hour is a clever art-theft tale; the second throws logic aside, for a fun yarn. In the Agatha Christie style, people are in a mansion on a dark and stormy night, with no escape and much death. Read more…
As reaction to the coronavirus spreads, here are a few quick TV notes:
– First, a quick one for tonight (Thursday, March 12): At 10 p.m. ET, CNN has a town hall: Coronavirus: Fact and Fiction,” with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Anderson Cooper. From the start of the crisis, Gupta has done a superb job of bringing clarity and sanity to the coverage.
– Now a later one, after the current rush: At 8 p.m. next Thursday (March 19), PBS has “Confronting Coronavirus.” Judy Woodruff anchors, with Amna Nawa, William Brangham and a panel of experts. Read more…
1) “Fast and Furious” films (shown here) everywhere. How many roaring engines and screeching tires do we need in one day? Today brings eight of the nine “F&F” movies; the missing one shows up Sunday. WGN America has the first four at 9 and 11 a.m. and 1:30 and 3:30 p.m.; it reruns the first two at 5:30 and 7:30, skips the third and reruns the fourth at 10. The fifth? That’s at 5:45 p.m. on HBO. Others are at 8 p.m. – the seventh on FX, the eighth on NBC, the ninth on HBO. That leaves the sixth, at 10 p.m. Sunday on FX. Read more…
