Mike Hughes

Kissinger film: History repeats, “Experience” fades

As “Kissinger” sprawls across two nights on PBS, an irony appears.
The documentary (9-10:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 27-28) includes Richard Nixon’s unsuccessful efforts to plug leaks and muzzle the press. Agents tapped reporters’ homes, reporting on mundane conversations.
And now, 50-some years later? This film is sort of the last survivor of a successful muzzling.
Bitter about PBS’ occasional news coverage, Donald Trump stripped away all of its federal funding. That left producers scrambling; the acclaimed “American Experience” series was suspended.
Its final shows (for now) were last month’s “Hard Hat Riot” and, now, a profile of Henry Kissinger (shown here). Others in the works — including ones about the national highway system and the GI Bill — are in limbo. Read more…

Best-bets for Oct. 26: creepy worlds of Anne Rice, Stephen King, Bart Simpson

1) “Talamasca” openers, 9 and 10:14 p.m., AMC; also 11:17 and 12:31. Far from her “Downton Abbey” world, Elizabeth McGovern plays a recruiter for a secret group that tries to control supernatural forces. Now she eyes a brilliant and tormented young man (they’re shown here). This Anne Rice spin-off evolves way too slowly, but it’s beautifully written, acted and filmed. Read more…

Leaphorn leaps to LA in February

There’s good news for fans of tough, taut drama:
“Dark Winds” (shown here) will be back for its fourth season. It arrives earlier than usual (Feb. 15 on the AMC cable channel) and gets its three main characters back together.
Based on Tony Hillerman novels, the show has been produced by the late Robert Redford and George R.R. Martin, the “Games of Thrones” author. In each of its first three seasons, it had a 100-percent score among critics tabulated by Rotten Tomatoes. Read more…

Week’s top-10 for Oct. 27: chills, scares and Kissinger

1) “Kissinger,” 9-10:30 p.m. today and Tuesday, PBS. This deep and balanced portrait has ample time for Henry Kissinger’s son, his former colleagues (some defending him, some not) and historians. It views Kissinger (shown here) a genius, shaped by the Holocaust, who won the Nobel Peace Prize … and whose policies are linked to the devastation of Chile, Cambodia, Bangladesh and more. Read more…

Best-bets for Oct. 25: It’s Halloween (and Christmas?) time

1) New Christmas movies, 8 p.m. Hallmark and 8 p.m. ET, Great American Family. Yes, Christmas films … six days before Halloween. Both channels rerun previous ones all ay, then have a new one. For “GAF,” it’s “A Royal Icing Christmas.” For Hallmark, “Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper” has a weatherman (Robert Buckley, shown here) return home, where (surprise?) he sees his former teen crush. Read more…

Best-bets for Oct. 24: cops, robbers and baseball

1) “Boston Blue,” 10 p.m., CBS. With his son (a Boston cop) out of the hospital, Danny Donnie Wahlberg, shown here with Gloria Reuben and Sonequa Martin-Green) plans to return to New York soon. Then a murder case drops in front of him … literally. This hour reflects the show’s strengths — good characters, twisty story, action — and a flaw: With so many regulars, it tries to include everyone; that requires a clumsy plot detour. Read more…

This time, she does less scaring, more listening

Big things seem to happen in Ryan Kiera Armstrong’s shows.
She kicks people, shoots people, sets them on fire. She kills and is killed. Also, she plays the violin.
For someone who’s only 15, she’s been busy. But in “The Lowdown,” she has an opposite experience.
The show (on Hulu and 9 p.m. Tuesdays on FX) stars Ethan Hawke as a Lee, a writer who is brash, booming and a bit foolhardy; Armstrong (shown here) plays his daughter Francis, watching and absorbing and, on occasion, salvaging. “You have to be the counterbalance,” she said. Read more…

Best-bets for Oct. 23: Superman, super Elsbeth

1) “Elsbeth,” 10 p.m., CBS. As a young widow, Raquel (Julia Fox, shown here) finds fame and fortune as a “grief influencer.” Things seem fine … until her husband turns out to be alive. It’s a clever hour, following a “Matlock” in which Matty and Olympia — once friends, now foes — must combine when the law firm probes its security breach. Read more…