Mike Hughes on TV

Most families have secrets, Ruth Wilson figures. Most aren’t like the ones in her family.
There was her grandmother, who devoted her final decades to religion. “She was very reserved.”
And then she wrote a memoir for her family. As Rebecca Eaton, chief of PBS’ “Masterpiece,” explains it: “Ruth’s grandmother discovered – at the end of her husband’s life – that he had a completely other life, several other wives and an entire career she didn’t know about.”
Fortunately, Ruh Wilson is a prominent actress who could re-tell the story. In “Mrs. Wilson” — three hours, spread over two Sundays of “Masterpiece” — she plays her own grandmother. Read more…

Strange things can happen in the telenovela world
.Evil twins appear, dead husbands re-appear … and the star has a seven-minute, high-octane monolog.“It was a phenomenal challenge,” said Gina Rodriguez.
Viewers will see that Wednesday, when “Jane the Virgin” starts its fifth and final season.
Read more…

Away from Hollywood – 7,000 miles away, actually – Jemaine Clement grew up in obscurity.
That was in rural New Zealand, where he wasn’t much in school. “I became the funny guy,” he said. “I never really applied myself.”
What would happen to this big (6-foot-1), quiet guy with a dry wit? A lot, actually. He’s been a singing crab and an evil cockatoo. He’s had albums, an HBO series and now what could be cable’s surprise hit.“What We Do in the Shadows” has already drawn advance raves from critics.
As John Solberg of FX explains the series, it’s “about a group of vampires … in Staten Island, who have been roommates for hundreds of years, sent over to colonize the new world.” Read more…

At the time, this seemed like Hollywood whimsy
.For an episode that airs Thursday, “Superstore” shot a blizzard in Los Angeles. “People were bringing their kids to … see snow for the first time,” said Colton Dunn, who plays Garrett.
It seemed especially odd, because the show is set in St. Louis, which barely averages 15 inches of snow a year.
And then? In January – after that episode was shot – a storm hit. St. Louis had 8-12 inches; parts of Missouri had 20. Read more…

Patricia Arquette was busy un-transforming.
She was returning to her old self, after being Tilly in “Escape to Dannemora.” Then she found Dee Dee and “The Act.”
I started losing weight after ‘Dannemora,’“ Arquette sid. “Then I stopped for this.”
It’s another true story, another troubled soul, another transformation — this time holding back a tad. Read more…

TV sometimes has idealized worlds, where people know and care for every neighbor.It’s had Mayberry and Walton’s Mountain and Smurfs Village and such. And now, it has … well, a chunk of New York City.Lorraine Toussaint, who stars, says that’s believable. “’The Village’ is not at all foreign to me,” she said. “It’s an old New York that I knew.” Read more…

In its long lifetime, “Project Runway” has kept bouncing around.It’s gone from Bravo to Lifetime and back to Bravo.
It’s escaped the ownership of Harvey Weinstein. It’s changed hosts and mentors and more.It even dumped the original producers … then put them back in charge. “We keep saying, ‘It’s like getting your baby back,” Jane Lipsitz said.
Except, of course, that babies are never the same after 14 years and 17 TV seasons. Read more…