Stories

After a l-o-o-o-n-g pause, funny docs are back

As the pandemic lingered, some TV shows rushed to get back.
Then there were shows like “Documentary Now,” the much-praised comedy. It finally returns (shown here) at 10 p.m. ET Wednesday (Oct. 19) on IFC (and then on AMC+), after almost vanishing.
“We certainly took advantage of the three-and-a-half years between seasons,” Seth Meyers told the Television Critics Association. “At this point, we were definitely the ‘Sopranos’ of IFC.”
And then some: “Sopranos” often had 15-month gaps between the end of one season and the start of another. “Documentary Now” had a 43-month gap after it third season. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 17, 2022

Stories

Cheerful author creates grumpy, grouchy author

Alan Conway grumbles and grumps his way through the start of a new mystery mini-series. He’s an angry author, ensnared by success.
Conway is fictional, at the core of “Magpie Murder” (shown here),. which debuts at 9 p.m. Sunday (Oct. 16) on PBS – surrounded by more-traditional mysteries: “Miss Scarlet and the Duke” (8 p.m.) is light and bright, “Annika” (10 p.m.) is darker, but both follow the usual pattern of solving a crime each week.
Not “Magpie.” It spends six episodes probing two murders – one of them nowadays, the other in Conway’s novel (set in the ‘50s), which is missing its final chapter. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 12, 2022

Stories

Remember light dramas? They’re back (a little)

Let’s call this a micro-mini-trend, a course-adjustment in the TV world:
This fall, a few shows — including “The Rookie: Feds,” shown here — are trying to do it all. They want to be funny, be serious and solve a case each week.
And yes, that used to be commonplace. Writer-producer Scott Prendergast says his show (“So Help Me Todd”) is “a bit of a throwback. My main inspiration is ‘Moonlighting’ and shows like ‘Hart to Hart’ and ‘Remington Steele’ and ‘Simon & Simon.’”
Such shows used to fill TV. Now it’s a pleasant surprise to find three new ones: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 10, 2022

Stories

A tempest role required a Pacino-esque touch

Actors hardly ever quote Al Pacino when discussing a Lifetime movie.
Alicia Witt (shown here in a previous role) can do that. Her career has been that varied.
Her latest film, is “The Disappearance of Cari Farver,” at 8 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 8) and 6 p.m. a week later (Oct. 15) on Lifetime. It’s a true-crime tale that takes her character through some sharp twists; “I was kind of bouncing off my seat when I got to the end” of the script, she said.
Early in her career, this might have wracked her. But at 31 she did “88 Minutes” with Pacino. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 6, 2022

Stories

A new Van Peebles lands a starmaking role

Imagine that you’re a Van Peebles – smart, charismatic, almost absurdly handsome.
Many possible careers loom, but there’s the obvious one – be a movie or TV star.
Mandela Van Peebles (shown here with his dad) went that route. “I graduated college and I tried getting a regular job,” he said. “And I just thought, ‘Wow, that was really hard!’”
So he got an irregular job, as an actor. Now he co-stars in “Reginald the Vampire,” which debuts at 10 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 5) on Syfy, after the “Chucky” season-opener at 9. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 3, 2022

Stories

Tubman and Douglass: Opposites sparked freedom

As Blacks fought for freedom, two people took opposite approaches.
Harriet Tubman was almost invisible. A tiny person, rarely photographed, she slipped in and out of the South as a spy, a scout and, especially, a master of the underground railroad.
Frederick Douglass (shown here) was the opposite, a man of many words and images. “He wrote so much and he spoke so much and there were so many great speeches,” filmmaker Stanley Nelson said.
Now Nelson – an Oscar-nominee and two-time Emmy-winner – has made films about both people. “Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom” and “Becoming Frederick Douglass” will be at 10 p.m. Tuesdays (Oct. 4 and 11, respectively) on PBS and then online. They follow 9 p.m. episodes of Henry Louis Gates’ “Making Black America” — an amiable look at clubs, institutions and traditions, continuing through Oct. 25. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 30, 2022

Stories

October brings fresh take on vampire saga

As October begins, TV re-discovers its interest in all things creepy.
It’s time for more “Chucky,” more “Halloween,” more vampires and zombies and such. For most networks, this is a seasonal blip; for AMC, it’s a way of life.
On Halloween of 2010, the network introduced the zombies of “The Walking Dead.” That’s continued for 11 seasons and several spin-offs. It returns now, to air its final eight episodes at 9 p.m. Sundays – each one followed by an “Interview With the Vampire” (shown here) episode.
This is “the largest and most significant effort we’ve ever embarked on,” network chief Dan McDermott told the Television Critics Association. “We’re building around the iconic works of Anne Rice. We purchased 18 books.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 27, 2022

Stories

Life transforms, among the wooly mammoths

(Interesting little story about the amputee actress from Michigan who co-stars in “La Brea,” which starts its second season Tuesday, Sept. 27, on NBC. This works any time, print or Web. As with any of my stories, feel free to share it with other Gannett papers in Michigan.)

By Mike Hughes
As the second “La Brea” season begins, Zyra Gorecki’s world transforms.
She’s the Michigan actress who plays Izzy, a teen who spent the first season simply being a victim. Izzy had lost her leg in an accident … lost connection with her dad because of his emotional turmoil … then lost her mom, who was swallowed by a giant sinkhole, ending up in 10,000 BC.
As the second season starts (9 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27, on NBC and then on Peacock), some of that has changed. Izzy and her dad plunged into an alternate sinkhole, ending up in prehistoric Seattle.
“It was really weird just thinking about, like being in 10,000 BC and having a fake leg and all of the garbage that goes with it,” Gorecki said. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 25, 2022

Stories

“Monarch”: a regal mix of soap, stars & songs

Dottie Roman and Elizabeth II had a lot in common, you know.
Both were queens – one of country music, the other of the British empire. Both will remain visible – one via flashbacks, the other via stamps and money and such. And both planned their own funerals.
The differences are also important, of course:
— Dottie is fictional, portrayed by Susan Sarandon(shown here, center) in “Monarch,” at 9 p.m. Tuesdays on Fox. Elizabeth, we’re told, was real.
— At her funeral, Dottie suddenly soared above the stage – a giant, holographic image, singing powerfully. Elizabeth didn’t … but it would have been really cool if she did. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 23, 2022

Stories

He rescued his sad mom … and his sagging life

Like many young actors, Scott Prendergast was drowning in debts and doubts.
He twas 35, with no money, no insurance and $27,000 in credit-card debt. “My mother was constantly having to step in and save me and fix my life,” he told the Television Critics Association.
Then a crisis turned everything around. Parts of that – 17 years later – are being re-created in “So Help Me Todd,” which debuts at 9 p.m. Thursday (Sept. 29) on CBS.
Skylar Astin plays Todd, an unemployed detective who is hired by his mom, a big-time lawyer. Prendergast wrote the script and is a producer, which makes things complicated. “You’re basically casting a proxy of yourself,” he said. “And then someone is playing sort of a version of your mother.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 23, 2022