1) “Elsbeth,” 10 p.m., CBS. Lots of ballerinas started in the “Nutcracker” story that begins with a kids’ Christmas party. Now an avante-garde director decides to do the show without children. This leads to distress, to murder and (shown here) to Elsbeth donning a tutu. Read more…
Norman Lear once summarized his friend beautifully:
“To be alone with Rob Reiner is to be in a crowd,” he wrote. “His brain and his mouth, like a chain of Chinese firecrackers, are firing constantly.”
And that brain kept triumphing — as a comedy writer, as one of the stars of Lear’s “All In the Family” and then as the director of classic movies, from “This Is Spinal Tap” to “A Few Good Men” and “When Harry Met Sally.”
Reiner (shown here in “This Is Spinal Tap,” 78, and his wife Michelle, 68, were reportedly found dead Sunday (Dec. 14), apparently stabbed to death. He left an awesome track record. Read more…
(NOTE: President Trump plans to give a talk at 9 p.m. ET tonight. The shows listed here were scheduled prior to this; for an overview of changes and options, see the story at “News and Quick Comments.”)
1) “Survivor” finale, 8-11 p.m., CBS. After last week’s scrambling (shown here), five survivors remain. There’s Rizo Velovic, 25, in tech sales; Sophie Balardi, 27, entrepreneur; Sage Ahrens-Nichols, 30, clinical social worker; Savannah Louie, 31, former reporter; and Kristina Mills, 36, career counselor. Tonight, one will become the 49th million-dollar winner. Read more…
Imagine three siblings who seem to have nothing in common … yet, somehow, have everything in common that really matters.
Those are the “Knives Out” mysteries, the third of which just arrived on Netflix.
They seem like mismatched kin — one cute and perky, one sleek and high-tech, one gloomy and gothic. But they share one character (ace detective Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig, right), the writer-director (Rian Johnson) and what counts:
Each is brilliantly crafted, with gifted actors playing compelling characters. Each has the twists, turns and surprises that a mystery requires. The films: Read more…
1) “The Nutcracker,” 8-9:30 p.m., PBS. This lush English National Ballet production (shown here) does everything right –gorgeous sets, costumes and stagecraft, backing 100-plus dancers, all of them deeply talented. The “Nutcracker” structure leaves the first 15 minutes fairly flat; then the magic begins. Read more…
1) “Tabernacle Choir: Hope For the Season,” 8 p.m., PBS, rerunning at 9:30. Here is epic-scale music at its best. There are great moments from soprano Ruthie Ann Miles (shown here) and narrator Dennis Haysbert. But the peak comes when the 360-voice choir goes directly from two “Alleluia” pieces (by Bach and Ginastera) to Handel’s thundering “Hallelujah” chorus. Read more…
1) “Avatar: The Way of Water” (2022), 7-11 p.m., ABC. Five days before the third “Avatar” film opens, here’s the second (shown here) — a $2.3-billion hit worldwide. Producer-director James Cameron continues the mystical world he created in 2009, now adding Kate Winslet, his former “Titanic” star. Read more…
1) “The Voice” finale, 9-11 p.m. today, 8-11 p.m. Tuesday, NBC. Four finalists are set — Aubrey Nicole, 19; Aiden Ross, 20; Ralph Edwards, 30; and Jazz McKenzie (shown here), 31. Tonight, the other two will be revealed; then the six each perform a contemporary song and a classic. Those performances will be recapped at 8 p.m. Tuesday; at 9, the finale party begins. Read more…
1) “Taylor,” 8-10 p.m., CW. At a New Jersey park, a girl saw 12-year-old Taylor Swift, confidently singing original songs to a few people. She soon was a Swift fan, playing her songs constantly during tough times. Such early glimpses are the best parts of this biography. We see the current stardom (shown here) and commotions, but we also see a young star-to-be and her fans. Read more…
You won’t often find me writing about a novel (or reading one).
But I have to comment on Sophie Kinsella, who died today (Dec. 10) at 55, of brain cancer.
Some people know her for writing two books that became the 2009 movie “Confessions of a Shopaholic” (shown here) That’s a fairly pleasant comedy (streaming on Netflix and Disney+) that stars Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy.
But that was just the start. She wrote 10 books in the “shopaholic” series and 13 others, all under that “Sophie Kinsella” pen name. Read more…
Best-bets for May 8: women’s place, then and now 
Best-bets for May 7: Four seasons end 
Best-bets for May 6: Re-live a global adventure 
