The Acorn streamer – specializing in British-type mysteries – has a busy stretch of shows and news.
For now, it has three movie-length episodes of “The Chelsea Detective” (shown here in a previous season). After that are six episodes of the long-running “Brokenwood Mysteries.”
And further away? Acorn has signed Brooke Shields for a series that – in a break from Acorn tradition –will be set in the U.S. Read more…
Two Midwestern songwriters who seem worlds apart – Bob Dylan and Cole Porter – will be featured this May, in PBS’ annual Broadway series.
Porter grew up on an Indiana farm; his “Kiss Me Kate” concludes the series May 30. A week earlier is the “Girl From the North Country,” with 20 songs from Dylan, who grew up in small-town Minnesota.
In their original versions, both shows drew Tony nominations for best musical; so did “Next to Normal” (shown here in its Broadway production), which opens the series. (“Kiss Me Kate” won, back in 1949; the others didn’t.)
They’re joined by the lone play in this group, “Yellow Face.” The shows, each at 9 p.m. on “Great Performances,” are: Read more…
Barely into spring, it’s time to think about TV’s season-finales.
CBS has announced 19 of them, including three shows that won’t be back – “SWAT” (shown here), “FBI: International” and “FBI: Most Wanted.”
It also plans to turn some of the season-finales into events. Several will be two-parters; “Elsbeth” will bring back some of its favorite villains. Read more…
It kind of felt like I was in the wrong theater.
I was there for “Snow White.” (Don’t judge.) But this felt more like I’d stumbled into “Les Miserables.”
I was hoping for happy little guys who whistled while they worked. Instead, I saw miserable souls under a vain ruler who knew nothing about the common man. If I’d wanted that, I could have watched CNN.
Eventually, it all works out and there’s a happy ending. (Sorry, I should have put up a spoiler alert.) But it was a rough road to get there. Read more…
There really is good news (occasionally) in the TV world.
Now we have fresh examples: “Ted Lasso” is returning … “Dark Winds” is prospering … And natural-world documentaries keep getting better. Details: Read more…
(This is the latest chapter of a book-in-progress, “Television, and How It Got That Way.” If you scroll up one, you’ll see all of the chapters so far, including this one, in their places in the book.)
For 30 years, a fourth TV network seemed like mere myth.
That was after the death of DuMont and before the birth of Fox. There were several tries, all imploding quickly.
One such fizzle (a 1967 latenight show led by Bill Dana, shown here) was declared by Jack Gould, the New York Times TV critic, to seal things. It was “further evidence that expansion of commercial TV is little more than a pipe dream.” Read more…
\For screenwriters, there’s a helpful chaos theory.
It’s one of the reasons that “Anora” (shown here) – in theaters now, on Hulu starting March 17 – was a worthy winner of five Academy Awards, including best picture.
That still doesn’t mean everyone should rush to see it. This film has enough of many things – sex, nudity, language – to disrupt fragile souls and bring arrests in fragile nations.
But it also has much more – great characters, perfect performances (especially by Oscar-winner Mikey Madison) and clever chaos. Read more…
The CW network will continue to keep Wednesdays as its oasis of new, scripted shows.
This spring, that will include the debut of “Sherlock & Daughter,” the return of “Children Ruin Everything” and the third season of “Sullivan’s Crossing” (shown here) … just five months after the second one ended. Read more…
This year’s Academy Award show gave us 31 great minutes.
It also gave us 194 not-great (and, sometimes, not good at all) minutes. But at least we got something.
The great ones were at the very start. There was a musical burst from Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo that took an 85-year leap from “Over the Rainbow” to “Defying Gravity.”
Then came Conan O’Brien’s sharp monolog. (We’ll forgive his nasty mini-film that preceded it; O’Brien made up for that later with a terrific little film introducing younger generations to movie theaters.) Read more…
For fans of TV drama, there’s some good news:
“Doc” will be back next season on Fox – this time for 22 episodes. Also, other shows – led by ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” – are set for their spring return.
Based on an Italian series, “Doc” started with an offbeat notion: After a car accident, a doctor has lost eight years of memories, both medical and personal. She struggles to revive her career and her life.
That may sound like a stretch, but the cast (led by Molly Parker, shown here) and the writing make it work. Read more…
