Monthly Archives: September 2026

Sep 11 2026
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Books, DVDs, History, Movies, Photography, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

What to Watch, and More! Week of Sept. 11 – Sept. 17

“Family Affair” favorites, the real Butch and Sundance & meet the world’s most famous axe murderess

FRIDAY, Sept. 11
102 Minutes Inside the Towers
Special commemorative documentary tells the untold story of survivors of the horrific events of 9/11 (8 p.m., History).

The Delivery Girl
An insurance adjuster’s mundane life spirals into a nightmare when a food delivery worker develops a deadly obsession with him (Tubi).

SATURDAY, Sept. 12
Mark Rober’s CrunchLabs
Season five of more fun experiments led by the former NASA engineer, YouTube star, gadget-eer and inventor (Netflix).

The Time Machine
Set your “time machine” alarm clock early to catch this 1960 sci-fi classic about a Victorian inventor (Rod Taylor) and his machine that transports him into the distant future. With Yvette Mimieux, Sabastian Cabot and Alan Young (7:30 a.m., TCM).

SUNDAY, Sept. 13
Family Affair
Celebrate the 60th anniversary of the beloved TV series with host Kathy Garver (who played Sissy) and eight of her favorite episodes (1 p.m., Catchy Comedy Network).

High Value Target: The Hunt for Saddam
Joel Kinnamin stars in this eight-part based-on-a-true-story drama, adapted from a bestseller by a CIA analyst, about one man’s search for the truth amid a nation’s complicated quest for justice (9 p.m., TNT).

MONDAY, Sept. 14
The Emmy Awards
Mariska Hargitay hosts tonight’s 78th annual bestowal of trophies to television programs and stars, and Michael J. Fox is set to receive the Bob Hope Humanitarian award (8 p.m., NBC & Peacock).

Adam’s Law
New reality-based courtroom series stars Adam Levy, a former district attorney and the son of TV icon “Judge Judy” Sheindlin (CBS).

TUESDAY, Sept. 15
Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence
Six-part contemporary adaptation of the author’s 1920s book and short-story series follows a pair of detectives in their adventures through the ages. Starring Antonio Thomas, Josh Dylan and Imelda Staunton (Britbox).

American Experience: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Not the Paul Newman/Robert Redford movie, but the real story of real-life outlaws Harry Longbaugh and Robert Leroy Parker, above, and how they managed to pull off some of the most spectacular Old West heists in history (9 p.m., PBS).

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 16
South Park
Can you believe the iconic, Emmy-winning animated series is starting its 29th season tonight? Well, it is! Welcome back, Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny! (10 p.m., Comedy Central).

Neagley
Maria Sten stars in new spinoff series as a protégé of Jack Reacher who investigates a dangerous evil (Prime Video).

THURSDAY, Sept. 17
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story
New anthology series from director Ryan Murphy stars Ella Beatty as a young woman with an axe to grind—who changed the way the world saw serial killers (Netflix).

Traitors: New Blood
Host Alan Cumming opens the doors of his Scottish castle to 22 everyday Americans—in lieu of celebrities—ready to get down with the latest twist in the reality competition (8 p.m., NBC).

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Who is Susie? She’s Susie Cave, the wife of musician Nick Cave, and this arty collection of words and photographs is an intimate, evocative testament to their love story—including the devastating loss of a child (Thames & Hudson).

Tag, you’re it! In the graphic novel Bomb It! (Thames & Hudson), you’ll learn all about the story of graffiti, from the subways and alleys of the ‘60s to the global sensation that “public art” has become today.

Take a nostalgic trip down memory lane with Why We Watch The Andy Griffith Show (McFarland), a collection of essays on the gentle charm and wholesome messaging of Mayberry. Find out the reasons—seen through contemporary lenses of religion, law and order, immigration issues, feminism and family—for the show’s enduring popularity.

NOW HEAR THIS

Rock again to one of the classic all-time live double albums with The Allman Brothers’ Live at Fillmore East (UMe Vinylphile Series). Featuring all analog mastering anew from original sources, it captures the Southern rockers firing on all cylinders in 1971 at the renowned club in Lower Manhattan on iconic standout tracks as “Statesboro Blues,” “Whipping Post,” “Done Somebody Wrong,” “One Way Out” and “Stormy Monday.”

The 1986 classic teen flick Pretty in Pink celebrates its 40th anniversary with a re-issued soundtrack album, on pink vinyl (!), featuring vintage ‘80s tunes from the Psychedelic Furs, Suzanne Vega, The Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen and more.

BRING IT HOME

Season three of creator Tyler Sheridan’s hit Tulsa King comes to DVD, starring Slyvester Stallone as an ex-con Mafia capo from New York City sent to Oklahoma to set up a criminal network there. (Paramount Home Video).

The little yellow fellows are back in Minions & Monsters (Universal Home Entertainment), the latest madcap adventure in the franchise that spun off from the Despicable Me flicks. This time, they’re in Hollywood making a monster movie…so what could go wrong? A lot! Available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD.

All 10 episodes of the high-octane crime drama Mobland (Paramount Home Entertainment) are rounded up in this season-one DVD, with an all-star cast including Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, Janet McTeer and Toby Jones.

Beam me up, Scotty! So I can enjoy the special 60th anniversary of the iconic TV series with Star Trek: The Original Series (Paramount Home Entertainment), with all three seasons—and 79 episodes—of the 1966-69 TV series starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelly and Michelle Nichols. Includes more than nine hours of special features!

Passenger (Paramount Home Entertainment) is a harrowing tale of a young couple, a gruesome highway accident and a demonic entity that hitches a horrific ride. Yikes! So buckle up. Starring Melissa Leo, Lou Llobel and Jacob Scipio.

Now you laugh like it’s the ‘80s again with Perfect Strangers: The Complete Series, with all eight seasons of the ABC sitcom about a Midwesterner (Mark Linn-Baker) and his distant European cousin (Bronson Pinchot), who moves in with him (Warner Home Entertainment). Buy HERE
 

Sep 04 2026
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Books, DVDs, Movies, Music, Pop Culture, Sports, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

What to Watch, and More! Week of Sept. 4 – 10

A month of ‘Star Trek,’ Spider-Man goes for two, & Dennis Quaid’s water war

Capt. Kirk, Spock and the whole “Star Trek” gang are on a month-long mission for MeTV

FRIDAY, Sept. 4
Mayday
Ryan Reynolds and Sir Kenneth Branagh star in this comedic Cold War adventure (Apple TV).

Films on Film
TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz kicks off this new series devoted to movies and the stories behind them, beginning with a documentary about actor Charles Grodin followed by several of his films, including Midnight Run (8 p.m., TCM).

Spider-Man x 2
With the new Spider-Man movie setting box-office records, maybe it’s time to catch up on its predecessors, 2019’s Far From Home and 2021’s No Way Home. Both are streaming today! (Disney+).


Water Wars
Dennis Quaid narrates this documentary about a clash between ranchers, farmers and billionaires in a high-stakes legal war over water rights—blue gold—in Texas (Prime Video).

SATURDAY, Sept. 5
Surviving the Silence: The Roxane Gay Story
Dramatization of a real-life experience of sexual abuse and trauma, based on a bestselling first-person account (8 p.m., Lifetime).

Month of Star Trek
Celebrate an entire month hailing the 60th anniversary of the classic sci-fi space show with Star Trek Specials, a night of special programming from decades past, including Leonard Nimoy’s Star Trek Memories, a 1991 25th anniversary special, episode highlight and more (11 p.m., MeTV).

SUNDAY, Sept. 6
A Tale of Two Cities
New version of the classic Charles Dickens tale (above)—about love, sacrifice and injustice during the French Revolution—stars Kit Harrington, François Civil and Mirren Mack (MGM+).

MONDAY, Sept. 7
Top of the World
Documentary about the Windows on the World, the iconic restaurant atop the World Trade Center that became a symbol of New York City’s resilience after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 (8 p.m., CNN).

America’s Tailgate on CBS
Celebrate the new football season with this Nashville-based Labor Day special featuring performances by Sheryl Crow and John Legend, cooking segments, player highlights and superfans. Hosted by Nate Burleson (8 p.m., CBS).

The Drop: A Snowfall Saga
New drama series set in Los Angeles in the ‘90s as two characters (Gail Bean and Isaiah John) seek reinvention as West Coast rap rises from the era’s crack epidemic (9 p.m., FX and Hulu).

TUESDAY, Sept. 8
Untold Mr. T: I Pity the Fool
Before the gold chains, Mohawk and Hollywood fame of The A-Team and Rocky III, there was Laurence Tureaud. Find out how he became the Hollywood icon (above) known around the world as Mr. T (Netflix).

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 9
Last Seen
Australian thriller series about a detective (Patrick Brammall) searching for his long-lost daughter (Apple TV).

Call My Agent! The Movie
French comedy drama follows a former casting agent turned director who must reunite with her old team when her lead actor drops out of the role (Netflix).

THURSDAY, Sept. 10
A Killer Story
Three-part docuseries examines a polarizing murder case—about a woman accused of killing her ex-husband and his girlfriend in 2002—that spanned more than two decades and captured national attention (HBO).

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives
After four seasons, how many secrets, and how many wives, can there be? Find out when season five hits tonight (Hulu).

BRING IT HOME

If you missed it on PBS, now you can get it on DVD. Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World is an acclaimed documentary about the late Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who often rhapsodized the natural world. Celebs including Oprah Winfrey, Steve Buscemi and Stephen Colbert read her words.

Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner star in Carolina Caroline (Magnolia Home Entertaiment), a steamy action thriller about a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde. With Kara Sedgwick, and a soundtrack with country tunes from a Kitty Wells, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams.

Comic-book fans, take wing with Batman: Part 1: Knightfall (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment), the first entry in a three-part animated adaptation of the Dark Knight’s DC Comics adventures in the 1990s. Anson Mount (from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) is the voice of Bruce Wayne/Batman.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Alphabet of Oddities (Abrams) is a collection of fanciful, sometimes whimsical, and often frightful A-to-Z drawings by Ronald Porcelli, illustrating an alphabet’s worth of imaginary beasties like the Boozoins, the Ice Wolf and Fxchopxtinks.

What’s a Slavic myth? Authors Noah Charney and Svetlana Slapšak uncover fascinating roots of wide-ranging influence in The Slavic Myths (Thames & Hudson), tracing tales of the Indo-European ethnolinguistic group through many worldwide offshoots, including stories of vampires, werewolves, witches, gods, goddesses and other creatures.

This year marks the 26th anniversary of 9.11, the fateful event that became the most devastating event in the United States since Pearl Harbor. In All the Presidents’ Wars (W.W. Norton), author Peter Bergen shows how the “war on terror” stretched across the presidencies of Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden.

Inventing the Wild West (McFarland) presents a fascinating breakdown of how the “historical” West of yore became romanticized into myth—by television, movies and folklore—that far overshadowed reality. So saddle up, pardner!

Sep 02 2026
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Movie Reviews

Movie Review: “The Sun Never Sets”

Dakota Fanning anchors an unsteady romantic triangle in Alaskan relationship drama

The Sun Never Sets
Starring Dakota Fanning, Jake Johnson & Cory Michael Smith
Directed by Joe Swanberg
Rated R

In theaters Friday, Sept. 4

“The heart wants what it wants,” wrote poet Emily Dickinson back in 1862, and it’s been echoed across time by pundits and popular culture. But what if the heart doesn’t quite know what it wants?

Dakota Fanning, who successfully progressed from little-girl childhood roles into more matured movie fare, faces a very grown-up dilemma in this indie drama about a messy romantic triangle. She plays Wendy, a young woman whose two-year relationship with Jack (Jake Johnson) has hit a rough patch; he wants them to take a break from each other. Wendy reluctantly agrees, and then unexpectedly runs into a former boyfriend, Chuck (Cory Michael Smith), rekindling an old flame.

Suddenly, she’s adrift in some choppy romantic waters, unmoored and unsure, bobbing between two guys who are increasingly jealous of each other. Maybe she just needs to shove off, in the boat we see that she wants to buy in the opening scene, and drop anchor elsewhere.

Director/writer/producer Joe Swanberg is a Hollywood indie filmmaker who helped establish the subgenre of “mumblecore” back in the early 2000s. Mumblecore movies were low-budget, dialogue-heavy relationship flicks, where characters talked a lot but didn’t “do” much.

That certainly fits here. There’s a lot of talk—about what Wendy, Jack and Chuck say they want, what they don’t want and what they want to do. But there’s minimal “action” to push the story along. Unless you count seeing Dakota Fanning in a hard hat, driving an excavator for Wendy’s job as a construction worker. Maybe that “hole” she’s digging represents the hole in her life, the absence of a stable foundation, a crater that just seems to keep getting bigger and deeper.

The title alludes to the story’s setting of Anchorage, Alaska, where the summer daylight, just south of the Arctic Circle, is prolonged and plentiful and night is just a slightly dimmer and much shorter version of day. It mirrors the movie’s three main characters, living in the dim twilight of relationships that are endless repeating cycles, neither day nor night but something, and somewhere, in-between.  

Dakota Fanning and Cory Michael Smith

This isn’t a big blockbuster. It’s a quieter, more intimate film. There are no speeding cars, no fisticuffs, no superheroes or monsters, no explosions. It feels like we’re watching real people, with real lives, jobs, needs and routines. Jack is an elementary-school basketball coach, Chuck an airplane pilot who takes tourists on Alaskan sightseeing trips. It helps that Fanning’s costars aren’t superstar leading men. You may have seen Jake Johnson as Nick Miller, the bartender in TV’s New Girl, but that was nearly a decade ago; Cory Michael Smith played Chevy Chase in 2024’s dramatization of the opening night of Saturday Night Live, and the Riddler on the Fox series Gotham. Casting Leo DiCaprio and Timothée Chalamet, for instance, would have made Jack and Chuck much less “believable”—and would have cost a whole lot more.

But Fanning is the true crux of the story, giving a standout performance as a woman feeling the tick-tick-tick of her biological clock—especially when she’s hanging with her married friend Lindsay (former Disney star Debby Ryan), who’s positively glowing in the early stages of her pregnancy. As Wendy goes back and forth between her two romantic partners, harboring real feelings for them both, she faces a tough choice. Will she go with the divorced Jack, already a “family man” with two adorable young kids, who says he doesn’t want any more children? Or with the flirty, scruffily sexy “fly boy” Chuck, who, we find out, already burned Wendy once? Or maybe with someone else entirely?

“It’s complicated,” Wendy says at one point.

Yes, it is. Just as life—and matters of the heart—can often be. Because the heart wants what it wants.

And sometimes it just wants to sail away from it all, on a boat.

—Neil Pond

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