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Movies, we’re told, need to have likable characters. They need people who are easy to root for.
That’s true … unless it’s a really well-made movie. Then rules are discarded.
Which brings us to HBO and its current streak: One Saturday (April 25), it had “Marty Supreme”; the next (May 2), it will have “Wuthering Heights”(shown here).
Both films (each reaching HBO Max a day earlier) center on hugely selfish and obsessive people. “Wuthering Heights” goes even further by giving us no one to like; even the servant girl is nasty.
And yet we watch for the best of reasons: Everything — the visuals, the dialog, the performances — is brilliantly executed. Read more…

Is it too early to worry about season-finales?
Maybe, but CBS is ready. It will wrap up one season this month (“Matlock,” shown here, April 23) and some others in the first half of May,
Most of these will be back in the fall, with a few exceptions: “The Neighborhood” had already said this is its last season; CBS won’t be bringing back “DMV,” “Watson” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and has given no word on “America’s Culinary Cup” or “Hollywood Squares.”
But for 17 others, this is just a summer break; the finale dates are:
Read more…

PBS will be back on Broadway next month.
It will stuff four Fridays in May with “Great Performances” shows. That includes two full musicals — “Suffs” (shown here) and “Top Hat” — plus a documentary and a Nicole Scherzinger concert.
This has become a tradition, for the month leading into the Tony awards. Each year, “Great Performances” puts new specials alongside ones from London. In this case, “Top Hat” and the Scherzinger concert were filmed in England, the others in the U.S. The line-up, all at 9 p.m., is: Read more…