Busy Earth Day(s): Here’s a round-up

On rare occasions, the calendar co-operates with our needs.
That’s true this year: Earth Day, always on April 22, falls neatly on a Saturday. That’s a good day for people to get out and enjoy (and even help) nature … and to watch nature shows on TV, from “Big Beasts” (shown here) to kids’ cartoons.
There will be a lot available, because this has is a key subject for many filmmakers. “We need to fall back in love with nature, the way we (did) as kids,” director-producer James Cameron (“Titanic,” “Avatar”) said to the Television Critics Association.
By now, there’s more urgency involved. Climate change “is perhaps the biggest and most awesome challenge human civilization has ever faced,” said Julia Cort, of PBS’ “Nova.” Read more…

Best-bets for April 18: emotional moments, past and present

1) “How Saba Kept Singing,” 10 p.m., PBS. David Wisnia (shown here) was sent to Auschwitz at 16. He survived because he entertained guards with his gorgeous singing … and because Helen Spitzer, a fellow prisoner, loved him and kept doctoring records. This deeply moving film follows the final years before his death last summer at 94. He reunites with Spitzer, returns to Auschwitz and sings with his talented grandson Avi, telling him: “You’re the proof that Hitler did not win.” Read more…

Best-bets for April 17: It’s a musical Monday

1) “The Voice” (8 p.m.) and “That’s My Jam” (10 p.m.), NBC. It will be musical Mondays now. First, “Voice” moves into its next phase (the “knock-out round”), with Reba McEnitre as the mentor for all four teams. Then Jimmy Fallon’s music-oriented “That’s My Jam” is at 10. It had a rerun last week, but now comes a new hour, with the Bailey sisters (shown here) competing against each other. Halle is with actor Simu Liu; Chloe is with Adam Lambert, the former “Idol” runner-up. Read more…

Best-bets for April 16: a great-drama overload

1) “Lucky Hank,” 9 p.m., AMC. Yes, there are way too many good shows (“Succession,” “Sanditon,” “Yellowjackets”) at 9 p.m. Sundays. But this one – rerunnning at 10:06 p.m. and 1:40 a.m. — is way too good to miss. Hank (Bob Odenkirk, shown here) clings to his faculty job at an obscure college, but his wife has interviewed for a job at a top school in New York. At a faculty dinner party, it all boils over in ways that are simultaneously funny and disturbing. Read more…

Week’s top-10 for April 17: Two shows end; Earth Day blooms

1) “Sanditon” series-finale, 9 p.m. Sunday, PBS. This began as a fragment of a story by Jane Austen. Two centuries after her death, filming began – then was delayed for two years via Covid and more. Still, it all works out. The finale has greats visuals, likable characters and a knack for resolving soap-type problems intelligently. There are plenty of those woes as this begins. Charlotte (shown here with her secret love Colbourne), Georgiana and others head toward doomed romances. Read more…

One more marvelous season

By now, TV viewers might decide that only the good die young.
This spring, some of the best shows are leaving voluntarily. HBO’s “Succession” will depart after just 39 episodes; PBS’ “Sanditon” will leave after 20. “Alice,” alas, had 192.
Now let’s add one more to the list: “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (shown here) is starting its fifth and final season on Amazon Prime. It has three episodes April 14, then adds one each Friday, through May 26.
That will make 43 episodes in five seasons. We would have preferred 143, but great shows obsess on quality; bad ones just keep puttering along. Read more…

Best-bets for April 14: “Mrs. Maisel” is still marvelous

1) “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” season-opener, Amazon Prime. A great show starts its final season with broad strokes. First is a fascinating flashforward to Esther as a young woman; then we’re back to the 1950s and her mom Midge (shown here in a previous episode) in despair, her comedy career sputtering. Her agent must move quickly, focusing on a latenight show. There’s an odd Thanksgiving and, as usual, crackling-good dialog. Read more…

Want a good story? View the sideline players

When most folks watch the news, they focus on the key players.
Some writers, however, eye the people on the side. That’s what led to “The Good Wife” and now to “The Last Thing He Told Me” (shown here), a sometimes-compelling Jennifer Garner mini-series that starts Friday (April 14) on Apple TV+. Consider:
— Michelle and Robert King were intrigued by all the women who manage to seem stoic as their husbands are charged with evil deeds. That led to “The Good Wife,” which had a seven-year run.
— Laura Dave was watching a TV interview, with Linda Lay defending her husband, Enron chief Kenneth Lay. She envisioned a story about a woman “who believes that the world is telling her one thing and yet she knows, in her soul, who she has married,” she told the Television Critics Association. Read more…

Best-bets for April 13: double “Anatomy,” returning “Sheldon”

1) “Grey’s Anatomy,” 9 and 10 p.m., ABC. Earlier this year, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) – the central character for 18-plus seasons – departed. Now Maggie Pierce, Meredith’s half-sister and the head of cardio-thoracic surgery, leaves after nine years. She and Winston Ngu decide the future of their wobbly marriage. (They’re shown here.) That’s in a busy, two-episode night: Jo faces a tough diagnosis, Levi helps a patient celebrate a milestone and the Amelia/Kai relationship is tested. Read more…