Stop and think about the weddings you’ve gone to.
Now do a calculation: In what percentage did the bride and groom say “I do” and become married?My own figure is 100 percent, but I might run with a dull crowd.
In the TV world, excluding finales, it seems closer to 50 percent. Read more…
Born with good intentions, fine actors and poor pacing, “In the Dark” has wandered a bit.
.It seemed to be drifting … but not any more. The season’s final two episodes make it all worthwhile; they’re 9 p.m. Thursdays, June 20 and 27, on CW
.Yes, that’s the network that’s stuffed with superheroes … which “Dark” is not. It’s sort of the opposite, which is how it got started. Read more…
The moon landing is about to sprawl across our TV sets again.
Its 50th anniversary (July 20) is sparking documentaries on PBS and cable and more. But what’s an ideal length? Producer-director Todd Douglas Miller has several answers to choose from: Read more…
In a land of dark dramas, we might all wish we lived in Frankie Drake’s world.
That’s 1920s Toronto, where even the the crooks are neat and well-spoken. In this detective drama, Frankie is a sleek redhead, zooming around on a red motorcycle. It seems like fun, but …
“The bane of my existence for Season One was trying to operate the cars and the motorcycle,” said Lauren Lee Smith, who stars.
Especially that motorcycle: “It lit on fire at one point. (And) when you’re supposed to be going forward, it would reverse.” Read more…
Strolling through the summer TV line-up can feel like a trip to a perverse flea market.
There’s a miniature-golf show (really, on ABC) … and a 3-on-3 basketball league … and the sort of soap opera where the groom denounces the bride and attacks the wedding singer. There are magicians and jugglers and feuding roommates and ’80s game shows and ….
Wait … flea markets also have their gems. In the midst of all this nonsense, “The Good Fight” is spending summer Sundays on CBS. It has strong stories, great dialog and gifted actors. Read more…
Twice now, prominent actresses have pulled Terrence McNally aside to tell him something important:
He was making a big, lunkheaded mistake.
“I heard both women profoundly,” said McNally, 80, the playwright who is profiled Friday on PBS. Read more…
One of TV’s most promising concerts arrives on a network that many people can’t find or pronounce
.That’s AXS – pronounced “access” — which has a George Jones tribute (Sunday, June 9, repeating June 12) that includes … well, everyone. Read more…
Kate Gosselin is heading into half-empty-nest turf
.Her twins are going to college; two of her sextuplets are living with her ex-husband. She’s just four teen-agers away from rattling around an empty house.
What’s next?“We’ve been nudging her to date for years,” said Mandy Gosselin, 18, one of the twins.
So that will be another TV show; “Kate Plus Date” has a six-episode summer run. Read more…
Mohammed Hossain is your almost-typical working guy.
He says he drives his cab 14 hours a day, seven days a week for less than $25,000 a year. And that’s if you don’t count his loan payments. In a three-years stretch, he was supposed to pay $717,500.
“I know so many drivers, they kill themselves,” Hossain (shown here) says in the June 9 episode of “The Weekly,” the compelling cable series focusing on New York Times reporters. “But I love my family.”
That leaves the broader questions: Why would a guy below the poverty line borrow a fortune? And who would loan it to him? Read more…
For the next couple months, it seems, our TV sets will be space-crazy.
And it won’t end there. The National Geographic Channel has just announced a “The Right Stuff” series that will begin next year.
Most of this is keyed to July 20, the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. ABC already featured that in its “1969” series …. PBS has declared this its “Summer of Space” … and cable channels are piling on. Read more…
