In a move that seems more like 2020 than 2022, Fox has delayed a major show for at least a half-year, blaming Covid.
The network had planned a big start for “Monarch,” a country-music drama starring Trace Adkins, Anna Friel and Susan Sarandon (shown heere). It would start right after the NFC championship game Sunday (Jan. 30), then settle into a spot at 9 p.m. Tuesdays. Read more…
1) “Help,” any time, www.acorn.tv. Here is one of the finest performances you’ll ever see … if you decide to see it. “Help” is a rugged ride, battering the characters and the viewers. But it also has work that’s amazing in its subtlety and depth. Jodie Comer, 28, plays Sarah, trying to steady a teetering life by working in a nursing home; Stephen Graham, 48, plays Tony, with early-onset Alzheimer’s. (They’re shown here.) It’s late in 2019 and worlds are about to implode in deeply moving ways. Read more…
Maybe this should become a tradition: Once every 55-plus years, people from Liverpool make a terrific movie called “Help.”
The first was in 1965, by the Beatles; it’s a delight that someone could watch over and over.
And the second debuted on British TV in September and reaches an American streamer (www.acorn.tv) on Monday (Jan. 31). It’s brilliantly crafted … and difficult to watch even once.
This “Help” was filmed mostly in Liverpool. It projects that city’s working-class feel, with Liverpool natives as its stars – Stephen Graham, Ian Hart and, especially, Jodie Comer (shown here). Read more…
1) Football, 3 p.m. ET, CBS, and 6:30, Fox. Now we’ll learn who will be in the Super Bowl. First is a battle of young quarterbacks: The Chiefs (14-5) and Patrick Mahomes, 26, already have one Super Bowl win; they face Joe Burrow, 25, and the Bengals, hoping to continue their two-year leap from 2-14 to 12-7. Then the veterans take over. Jimmy Garoppolo, 30, and the 49ers (12-7), face the Rams (14-5) and Matthew Stafford (shown here), 33, who had never won a play-off game until this year. Read more…
1) Olympics opening ceremony, 6:30 a.m. ET Friday, NBC, Peacock, Olympic Channel; then 8 p.m., NBC. In 2008, Beijing had a spectacular Summer Olympics ceremony (shown here), with 15,000 performers and a reported $100-million budget. Now it becomes the first city to host the summer and winter games. This ceremony has the same director, in the same building, but with a smaller scale. About 3,000 performers are expected, plus 2,900 athletes from 90 countries. Read more…
1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. For the next three weekends, the Olympic will gobble up NBC. So we might as well savor tonight, wrapping up a string of three new “SNL” episodes. The host, Willem Dafoe, has rarely been thought of as a funny guy; he’s 66 and had never done the show until last week’s brief visit. The starpower comes from Katy Perry (shown here), with her fourth turn as music guest. Perry, who also hosted once, has a new “American Idol” season starting Feb. 27. Read more…
TV viewers now have an answer to a frequent question: When will “The Masked Singer” return?
They also have the answer to a rarely asked question: When will there be a show about people toppling dominos?
Both will be March 9, as part of the Fox network’s spring makeover. That also puts the two “9-1-1” shows back together, returns some reality shows (“MasterChef Junior” and “Name That Tune”) and debuts a clever, offbeat comedy after “Call Me Kat.”
Read more…
1) ”Janet Jackson,” 8-10 p.m., Lifetime and A&E; concludes Saturday. Merely with her music career, Jackson (shown here) would merit a documentary. She’s sold 160 million records; in the U.S., she’s had seven No. 1 albums and 10 No. 1 singles; among women, only Madonna and Mariah Carey have more. She’s also an actress (with an Oscar nomination) and has had a complicated life. She discusses the deaths of Michael and her dad, plus the Super Bowl controversy, three marriages, giving birth at 50 and more. Read more…
TV people seem to be realizing something that others – novelists, therapists, biographers – always knew:
One person can be many things, some of them opposites. “That dichotomy is really in all of us,” Christina Ochoa said.
That’s true of her character in “Promised Land” – a good woman who makes a bad choice in a crisis. It’s true of other characters in the show, at 10 p.m. Mondays on ABC. (The opener reruns at 10 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27; also, every episode is available on Hulu after airing.)
And it’s especially true of Ochoa (shown here), who often gets roles that match her look. Tall (5-8 ½) and fit, with raven hair and appealing face, she’s starred in “Valor” as a war-veteran helicopter pilot and in “Blood Drive” as a femme fatale race driver; she’s co-starred in “Animal Kingdom” as a cocaine dealer and in “A Million Little Things” as a secretive secretary. Read more…
In a year when laughs have been rare, here’s good news: CBS has renewed “Ghosts” (shown here), “The Neighborhood” and “Bob (Hearts) Abishola” for next season.
That follows the renewal of “Young Sheldon,” so there are only two CBS comedies to worry about – “The United States of Al” and “B Positive.” Read more…
Best-bets for July 13: One show debuts, three return 
Best-bets for July 12: double-Joel, plus sharks 
Best-bets for July 11: a Messi moment for Cup 
