Stories

Season preview, broadcast: a lively little bunch

(This starts a three-story preview of the new season. For this story, we survey new shows on the broadcast networks; next is a cable/streaming round-up.)

It’s almost time for the fall TV season to arrive.
And don’t worry: There aren’t many new shows to keep track of.
If you add up all the new ones on the four big networks, you have three dramas (each of them a spin-off), three game or competition shows and one comedy.
Yes, one comedy (“DMV,” shown here). Let’s hope you don’t need a lot of laughs. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 8, 2025

Stories

Bar-hopping? It’s all part of an intense job

It’s always handy when job-preparation involves bar-hopping.
That was the case for Emilia Jones, as she prepared for “Task” the intense, seven-week mini-series that stars Mark Ruffalo (shown here) and debuts at 9 p.m. Sunday (Sept. 7) on HBO.
Jones (23 and the star of the Oscar-winning “Coda”) is from England, where people seem to have an entirely different approach to words. Now she was playing someone rooted in the blue-collar traditions of small-town Pennsylvania. With dialect coach Susanne Sulby, she was on a mission.
“Two weeks before we started shooting, Susanne and I would go around bars and listen,” she said by Zoom. That soon felt natural. “It’s really fun; it’s not just an accent, it’s like an energy.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 4, 2025

Stories

As papers struggle, “The Paper” finds fun

Back in the days of “The Office,” Michael Scott gave a talk at a college.
“Paper will always be important,” he said (or some such thing). “Write that down.”
That brought some dutiful click-click-clicks. Students were writing it down on their computers, with no paper in sight.
It was a sign of things to come — including the sometimes-terrific “The Paper” (shown here), which debuts its entire 10-episode season Thursday (Sept. 4) on Peacock. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 3, 2025

Stories

It takes a global village to make a “cozy crime” show

Growing up in a “very silly” and very mobile family, Emily Corcoran knew she liked comedy and liked Greece.
She also liked the idea of mismatched half-sisters. Now she’s combined that in “The Sunshine Murders” (shown here), debuting 8-10 p.m. ET Thursday (Sept. 4).
That’s on UpTV, a family-friendly cable channel that juggles reruns, movies and a few shows from other countries. “Heartland” and “Hudson & Rex” are Canadian; “Sunshine” is … well, from Greece, New Zealand, England, Cyprus and beyond.
It follows the recent trend of “cozy crime” shows, ones — from “Elsbeth” to “Grantchester” to “High Potential” — in which the crimes may be foul, but many of the people are warm and pleasant. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / September 1, 2025

Stories

The August lull? PBS fills TV’s black hole

Each August, TV has a black hole. And each time, PBS helps fill it.
That’s happening now. There are three new Sunday dramas (“Marlow Murder Club” is shown here), some Friday specials and the best smog show you’ll ever see. All arrive just as the other networks are taking a late-summer snooze.
Broadcast networks keep airing promos for shows that are “coming soon” … or not-so-soon. CBS boasts of a “premiere week” in mid-October. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 22, 2025

Stories

Yes, it’s fun to be a village vicar’s crime-solving wife

Scattered through the English countryside, it seems, are villages suitable for rest, relaxation and murder mysteries.
Cara Horgan (shown here) can verify that. She grew up in one and now works in another, she’s one of the stars of “The Marlow Murder Club,” which starts its second season at 9 p.m. Sunday (Aug. 24) on PBS.
“These small towns exist all over the UK,” Horgan said by Zoom. “And Marlow is quintessentially British.”
It’s a real town of 14,000 that’s been around for about 10 centuries. T.S. Eliot and Percy Shelley wrote poems there; Mary Shelley wrote “Frankenstein” there and (appropriately) Robert Thorogood is writing his “Marlow Murder Club” novels there. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 18, 2025

Stories

This solemn cop is a funny guy (really)

Americans are used to seeing Sanjeev Bhaskar draped in angst and agony.
He plays an earnest cop in “Unforgotten” (shown here) which starts its sixth season at 10 p.m. Sunday (Aug. 24) on PBS. Dealing with years-ago murders, it’s a smart show that feels the pain of friends, family, suspects and cops.
So this is a surprise: Bhaskar is a fun and funny guy. He’s done lots of comedies, met lots of Beatles. He once had the No. 1 song in England … a fact that he apologized for. Also, he married his fictional grandmother.
And he’s definitely surprised to be in a dead-serious show. “I thought, ‘Who’s going to cast me as a detective?'” Bhaskar said by Zoom. “I wouldn’t cast me as a detective.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 16, 2025

Stories

Yes, America (and beyond) has some odd talent

As it prepares to go live, “America’s Got Talent” (shown here) has a wild variety of acts.
There are robots and roller skaters, acrobats and aerialists, magicians and musicians — lots of musicians. There’s also a lady with a crossbow, dubbing herself Anna Danger.
And yes, there are some Americans. We’re told that America’s got talent. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 8, 2025

Stories

A young “synth” fights for an alienated Earth

As “Alien Earth” (shown here) arrives, we face two vital questions:
1) What is the future of mankind, in an artificially enhanced world? and
2) Is it wise for an actor to work barefoot?
OK, one question might be more vital than the other, but we’ll ponder both.
“Alien Earth” opens with two episodes at 8 p.m. Tuesday (Aug. 12) on FX, continuing a story that has spanned (directly and indirectly) nine movies. FX will have four of them Tuesday — “Prometheus” (2012) at 10 a.m.; “Alien: Covenant” (2017) at 12:30 p.m., the original “Alien” (1979) at 3 and “Alien: Romulus” (2024) at 5:30. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 5, 2025

Stories

August lull? TCM offers star marathons

Just as TV hits its low point, Turner Classic Movies fills the void.
It does that each August, with “Summer Under the Stars.” Each day brings a marathon of films from one star.
Some of those people have been featured often. On Saturday and Sunday (Aug. 9-10), Elizabeth Taylor (shown here with Paul Newman) and Clark Gable will be back-to-back.
But others get their first time in the August spotlight. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 3, 2025