Stories

In this small town, friends and neighbors collide

Life gets hectic in the fictional world of Edgewater.
Fires are fought, marijuana is grown, laws are broken. But alongside that are sturdy, everyday people and serene scenery.
That’s the setting for “Sheriff Country” (shown here) and “Fire Country,” at 8 and 9 p.m. Fridays on CBS. Both are from actor-writer Max Thieriot.
“What really inspired me to create ‘Fire Country’ was this opportunity to tell a story rooted in the community I grew up in,” Thieriot said by Zoom. “It’s about resilience, redemption, the human spirit.” Plus messier things. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 27, 2025

Stories

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…

By Mike Hughes / October 24, 2025

Stories

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…

By Mike Hughes / October 21, 2025

Stories

“Brady Bunch”: silly fun, simmering anger

Bright and bouncy, “The Brady Bunch” just wanted to have fun.
It had cute kids, pretty parents and lots of sight gags. So what was it like making the show?
Rough, Lloyd Schwartz says in “TV We Love,” at 8 p.m. Monday (Oct. 20) on CW. Robert Reed (shown here, alongside his TV wife Florence Henderson and two of their daughters) “fought constantly” about scripts.
Reed — who died of cancer in 1992, at 59 — was outspoken about his anger, especially toward the “Brady” creator.
“It was a well-known fact in Hollywood that Sherwood Schwartz was absolutely the worst writer working in television,” he once said. “But that all changed one day (with) one writer who was even worse. It was Lloyd, Sherwood’s son.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 17, 2025

Stories

Ah yes, the joy of being an opening act

Being an opening act can be a matter of extremes.
You get a small space on a big stage, a brief set in a long day. You see lots of people, few of them interested in seeing you.
“We’ve all been in that position of (facing people who) not only don’t know who we are, but don’t care,” Keith Urban recalled in a Zoom press conference. “We’ve got to try and grab them in that minimal amount of time.”
Now he’s at the other end, in “The Road.”
The 90-minute opener (9 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 19) ends with a song by Urban — whom the crowd came to see. Before that, a dozen contestants do one song each, while Blake Shelton (shown here) and Keith Urban watch. Both of them know the turf. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 15, 2025

Stories

Her simple life is Earthbound and zombie-free

Even when she’s chasing killers and saving lives, Sonequa Martin-Green can almost relax.
It’s refreshing, she said, “not having to save the actual universe all the time.”
For five seasons of “The Walking Dead,” she fought zombies; for all five seasons of “Star Trek: Discovery,” she was the main character, facing crises in new worlds. Now her new duty — as a “Boston Blue” police detective (shown here)– might feel like a breeze.
The show — debuting at 10 p.m. Friday (Oct. 17) on CBS — is a spin-off of “Blue Bloods.” For 14 seasons, Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg, left) played a tough New York cop. As that show was ending, producers hatched the new plan: He goes to Boston, where his son is a rookie cop; at times, they link. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 14, 2025

Stories

Here’s another frontier (a big one) to conquer

Hollywood has always liked frontiers, old and new.
Those are great places for a hero — Davy Crockett or Roy Rogers or Captain Kirk — to be on his own, without back-up or 9-1-1.
And now we have “The Last Frontier.” It’s a 10-parter, Fridays on Apple TV+, starting with two episodes on Oct. 10.
This time, the frontier involves distant parts of Alaska. It has some of the same things Davy and Roy faced, plus one more:
“Everyone had to do a fight sequence,” Jason Clarke (shown here), who stars, said in a Zoom press session. And “everyone had to take physical training with horses … And then to shoot in minus-25.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 9, 2025

Stories

At last: CBS arrives; new season is here

TV viewers can be forgiven for having a few basic questions:
When will the TV season start? Will it ever start? Wait, did it start already?
The answers finally become clear when CBS has its “premiere week,” Oct. 12-19, three weeks later than usual. It includes:
— One situation comedy, a fun one. “DMV” has its sprightly start at 8:30 p.m. Monday (Oct. 13).
— Two cop shows, both spin-offs that are high-octane, slickly produced and a bit overstuffed. “Sheriff Country” and “Boston Blue”(shown here) start at 9 and 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17.
— A promising reality competition, “The Road,” at 9 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 19. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 7, 2025

Stories

“DMV”: scared souls, loud jerk, great fun

In our minds, we might cast our spouses as heroes, angels, knights in shining armor.
And in TV, Dana Klein cast her husband as a complete and total jerk. “He’s such a nice guy,” she insists.
She’s creator and producer of “DMV,” at 8:30 p.m. Mondays on CBS. In the opener (Oct. 13), a rich businessman keeps badgering for special treatment from the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Ah yes, Klein figured — a perfect role for her husband, Mark Feuerstein (shown here). “We’re from New York, so we know some people who are a little, you know, entitled when they go into a room.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 6, 2025

Stories

She dreamed of Africa … then triumphed there

At 10, Jane Goodall loved the “Tarzan of the Apes” book, with one exception:
“He married the wrong Jane,” she said recently. “His Jane was a wimp.”
Most fictional women were, when Goodall read the book (1944) and when Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote it (1912). But this Jane (Goodall) didn’t fit any such stereotypes.
Mostly, Goodall (shown here) was known for her perpetual calmness. “I think it’s because of all the months and months I spent in the Rain Forest,” she said.
Now — after her death Wednesday (Oct. 1) at 91 — we can look back at an amazing life of working face-to-face with jungle primates. We can catch her new “Famous Last Words” on Netflix … And National Geographic documentaries, led by the 2017 “Jane” and the 2020 “Jane Goodall: The Hope,” both on Disney+ … And PBS documentaries … And her books. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 4, 2025