Stories

A TV rarity: An old script was brought to life

Scattered around Hollywood, it seems, are warehouses (or hard drives) stuffed with scripts.
They’ve been purchased and pondered and then ignored. Few survive; one exception is the “Big Shot” series, which starts streaming Friday (April 16) on the Disney+ service.
“When Disney+ started, they … said, ‘Have you seen any scripts over the years that didn’t get made that you might like?’” John Stamos (shown here) – who stars as a guy who was once big in men’s college basketball, but now coaches high school girls – told the Television Critics Association. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 11, 2021

Stories

Small-town Wales propels big-time actors

It took a mere half-century for two sorta-neighbors to meet and work together.
That’s on “Prodigal Son” (9 p.m. Tuesdays on Fox), which has just returned from a month-long break. Michael Sheen co-stars and Catherine Zeta-Jones has joined the cast; they play doctors at a prison (shown here), with a key difference: She’s an employee, he’s a prisoner.
Here are two people who grew up in the same southwestern area of Wales, at the same time, yet never quite met. “We actually have childhood friends” in common, Zeta-Jones told the Television Critics Association. “My mom and dad know his dad.” And yet, they’d “never met before; I’d admired (him) from a distance.”
That distance was about 5,000 miles. Zeta-Jones, 51, became a Hollywood star – an Oscar-winner (“Chicago”), married to an Oscar-winner (Michael Douglas) – while Sheen, 52, was starring in British theater and TV. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 9, 2021

Stories

PBS Sundays: fresh glimpses of World War II

By now, TV viewers might figure they know every aspect of World War II. Or not.
How about the Swedish-born princess who became Norway’s best lobbyist? Or the bankers behind bars, performing Shakespeare? Or a Spanish diplomat, defying rules to help Jews flee from Nazis? Such stories show up in two PBS shows that debuted on Easter and continue on Sundays:
– “My Grandparents’ War” has British actors learn about their kin. It started with Helena Bonham Carter and now has Mark Rylance (April 11), Kristin Scott Thomas and Carey Mulligan.
– “Atlantic Crossing” traces Princess Martha, the niece of three kings (Norway, Denmark and her native Sweden) and the wife of her cousin, Crown Prince Olav of Norway. In the opener (shown here), they barely escaped the Nazi invasion; on April 11, a plan emerges: Olav will stay in London with his father (the king) and the government-in-exile; Martha will attempt a sea journey to the U.S. with their children. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 7, 2021

Stories

Everything’s okay for autistic actress

Last year, one of TV’s best characters arrived.
Matilda, 17, was confident (sometimes), quirky (always), talented and likable. She was also autistic.
And she was, apparently, authentic. Kayla Cromer (shown here), who plays her in “Everything’s Gonna Be Okay” (10 p.m. Thursdays on Freeform, starting the second season April 8) is on the autism spectrum.
“I wasn’t coddled,” Cromer, 23, said by phone. And maybe she would have survived Matilda’s ordeal. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 6, 2021

Stories

Meet one family’s income mega-gap

So there was Michael Colton, getting unemployment checks. That happens to writers sometimes.
And there was his twin, with a very different reality: “He sold a company for about $7 million,” Colton told the Television Critics Association.
Colton’s brotherly reaction to this? “It was all of these feelings of anxiety, mixed with pride, mixed with jealousy and insecurity.”
Then he went to his default position – comedy. The result is “Home Economics” (shown here), which debuts at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday (April 7) on ABC. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 5, 2021

Stories

Hemingway: a large life, a larger image

Ernest Hemingway’s fame soared in two ways.
As a writer, he was popular and praised. As a person, he was something more.
People knew him (shown here) as a pop-culture figure who traveled the globe and did it all – food, drink, romance, adventure – to excess. It was an impressive reputation … even if some of it wasn’t true.
“The public persona became such a burden to him,” said Lynn Novick, who combined with Ken Burns to mold “Hemingway,” a compelling, three-night documentary that starts Monday (April 5) on PBS, So it was “wonderful to discover him young, before he became that stereotype.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / April 1, 2021

Stories

Brooks starring in “Mahalia”? The universe insisted

The world conspired to make sure of two things: Danielle Brooks would play Mahalia Jackson and Kenny Leon would direct her.
Now “Mahalia” debuts at 8 p.m. Saturday on Lifetime, rerunning at 11:03 p.m. and then at 5:30 p.m. the next day, Easter Sunday.
Jackson (shown here) was a gospel star – the first to win a Grammy – and an ally of Martin Luther King. People recall different first impressions: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 31, 2021

Stories

Leary’s lives bring chaotic fun

What we learn from Denis Leary’s lives – his real one and his fictional one in the new “Moodys” comedy – is basic:
Marriage and family are works in progress. Occasionally, you get it right.
“Within the course of a marriage, you do have a lot of love and anger and stories and experiences to build on,” Leary told the Television Critics Association, “in dealing with, especially, adult children.”
In “Moodys,” Leary and his wife — played by Elizabeth Perkins (they’re shown here) — have three grown-up children. A mini-series in December of 2019 saw all of them return home for Christmas; now the series (debuting at 9 and 9:30 p.m. Thursday, April 2, on Fox) has them moving back in, at least temporarily. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 29, 2021

Stories

“Mayans” duo world — noisy action, subtle passion

It’s a small, quiet scene in a show known for big, noisy ones. And it packs the emotional power we expect from “Mayans M.C.”
On one side of the glass is Alicia, who hasn’t been in jail before; on the other is EZ (shown here, second from right, in a previous episode), who has.
“Anything you try to keep – hope – will just get destroyed” in prison, he tells her. “So kill it first …. Shut it all down.”
Her question: “When I get out, how do I turn it back on?”
That’s a question for Elgin James, who’s been on both sides of the glass. He’s the co-creator and producer of “Mayans,” which airs at 10 p.m. Tuesdays on FX, then goes to Hulu. He’s in charge of a much-praised drama; he’s also spent a year in prison. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 27, 2021

Stories

Bacon masters a verbal volcano of schemes and hate

Jackie Rohr is a verbal volcano. Words spill out – sometimes clever, often caustic and conniving.
He’s racist, misogynist and nasty; he’s also an FBI agent in 1993 Boston. As played by Kevin Bacon (shown here with Aldis Hodge) in “City on a Hill” – which starts its second season at 10 p.m. Sunday (March 28) on Showtime – he’s one of TV’s most memorable characters.
And yes, there are viewers who admire the fact that he gets things done.
“These are not things I personally feel about the man,” Bacon told the Television Critics Association. “He’s not really a person (I would) like or respect or want to spend time with. He’s a (feces), really.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / March 25, 2021