Author Archives: Neil Pond

Feb 17 2023
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Books, DVDs, Photography, Pop Culture

The Entertainment Forecast

Feb. 17 – Feb. 23

‘Idol’ returns, Billy Crudup sells timeshares on the moon & Monopoly’s twisted roots

Who’ll hit the jackpot on the new season of “American Idol”?

FRIDAY, Feb. 17
Hello Tomorrow
Ten-episode dramady stars Billy Crudup (from The Morning Show) as a traveling salesman in a future world offering timeshares on the moon. Far out! (Apple TV+).

Carnival Row
Second half of the final season of the fantasy drama, set in a world where humans and creatures clash and starring Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne, starts tonight (Prime Video).

The 12th Victim
True-crime four-part docuseries sheds startling new light on an infamous 1958 case of Charlie Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, a teenage couple charged and convicted of brutally killing 11 victims at random (8 p.m., Showtime).

SATURDAY, FEB. 18
A Rose for Her Grave: The Randy Roth Story
Christell Stause, Colin Egglefield and Laura Ramsey star in this TV adaptation of a best-selling novel by true-crime author Ann Rule, about a notorious serial wife-killer and the fearless woman who final brings him to justice (8 p.m., Lifetime).

Two contestants survey their surroundings in new episodes of “Naked and Afraid.”

SUNDAY, Feb. 19
Naked and Afraid
Cue the naked bums and the pixels—it’s a new season of the ultimate survival series, which puts contestants in all kinds of inhospitable places wearing nothing but their birthday suits. Who’ll endure, and who’ll “tap out,” in Mexico’s notorious Devil’s Canyon, or the brutal jungles of Guyana? (8 p.m., Discovery Channel).

Magnum: P.I.
Re-filling the sand-filled shoes originally worn by Tom Selleck, Jay Hernandez returns for a new season of this reboot to the role of the Oahu private eye now solving crimes in the same TV universe as Hawaii Five-0 (9 p.m., NBC).

American Idol
The show that pioneered TV’s musical competition genre returns for season 21 with judges Luke Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie leading the search for America’s next singing sensation (8 p.m., ABC).

Biography: WWE Legends
In this corner… Explore the careers and private lives of wrestling superstars in this new docuseries (8 p.m., A&E).

Tournament of Champions IV
Who’s tough enough to chew their way to the top? You’ll find out in this new season of Guy Fieri’s food-competition series, in which chefs from across America clash in a series of high-stakes challenges (8 p.m., Food Network and Discovery).

MONDAY, Feb. 20
American Experience: Ruthless—Monopoly’s Secret History
And you thought the popular, iconic board game was just about moving little tokens around a square, gobbling up property deeds, buying houses and hotels and collecting rent. But the story of how it came to be, as told in this insightful documentary, is one of theft, deception and corporate double-dealing. Should we be surprised? (9 p.m., PBS).

Secrets of Spain
Where are the best stops to pause for a nosh in a trek across Spain. Siblings Giaconda and George Scott, who grew up there, take viewers on a guided tour of great places to dig into the cuisine (and the culture) of the region off the beaten tourist track (10 p.m., Cooking Channel).

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Just ahead of this year’s 95th annual Academy Awards, Red Carpet Oscars (Thames & Hudson) is a lavish, photo-packed coffee-table treasury of some nine decades of fashions at the entertainment world’s biggest, most culturally impactive annual event. Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett wrote the foreword.

“Get Back” to the heyday of mop-top mania in this lavish, luminous re-release of Harry Benson’s The Beatles (Taschen), a coffee-table compendium of images (some classics, others rarely seen) by the esteemed Scotland-born photog who chronicled most of the Fab Four’s tours, TV appearances, press conferences, play times and movie productions.

TUESDAY, Feb. 21
Bodycam: On the Scene
Tonight’s episode, “Miracle Escapes,” follows officers as a suspect suddenly pulls off, with a policeman wedged half-inside, half-outside of the car, and then other officers rescue a man perilously stuck on a train track (10 p.m., Investigation Discovery).

Snowfall
Tune in for the beginning of the sixth and final season of the gritty drama series about the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic in California, and various lives it directly affected (FX and Hulu).

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 22
Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal
True-story documentary series about a prominent South Carolina family whose lives start to unravel after the death of a teenager in a boating accident (Netflix).

Breaking Ground
Documentary about a Kansas neighborhood working to restore their community—and trying to “break ground” by rebuilding other Black and brown communities across the country (streaming on PBS Voices on YouTube).

THURSDAY, Feb. 23
Outer Banks
The adventure continues in tonight’s kickoff of season three of the teen mystery drama, set on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, as the scrappy group known as the Pogues—washed ashore on an idyllic island—face more obstacles in tracking down the legendary treasure (Netflix).

Jabari Banks as Will as Olly Sholotan as Carlton in “Bel-Aire”

Bel-Aire
Season two of the Fresh Prince “reimagined” spinoff series begins tonight, with Jabari Banks as young Will Smith, who journeys from the mean streets of Philadelphia to the gilded, gated mansions of Hollywood (Peacock).

Feb 15 2023
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Movie Reviews, Movies, Pop Culture

Ant-y Warfare

Paul Rudd returns to the teeny-tiny character that’s become a major cog in the Marvel movie machine

Paul Rudd, Kathryn Newton & Evangeline Lilly confront a new challenge in ‘Quantumania.’

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas & Michelle Pfeiffer
Directed by Peyton Reid
PG-13

In theaters Friday, Feb. 17, 2023

“From small things, mama,” sang Bruce Springsteen back in 1979, “big things one day come.”

The Boss wrote and recorded that song some 35 years before the first Ant-Man movie, in 2015, which introduced fans of the Marvel Comics character to Paul Rudd as the pizza employee, doting dad and petty thief who ends up with a high-tech, form-fitting super-suit that can shrink him down to become an insect-size do-gooder.

Or, when necessary, enlarge him into a towering colossus.

Just like real-life ants who can engineer and construct entire mega-colonies, form themselves en masse into bridges and boats, lift up and carry up to 5,000 times their body weight, and (of course) change the course of picnics, Ant-Man is a teeny-tiny “small thing.” But he’s become a big player in the Marvel movie franchise. Quantumania is the third in the Ant-Man movie franchise, and as the title suggests, it takes place in the “quantum realm,” a hidden dimension in the sprawling Marvel multiverse that’s only accessible through dark sorcery or weird science.

Or the movies like this one.

Quantum-ville is like Oz buzzing on super steroids and maybe some crystal meth, an explosively colorful place of breathtaking awesomeness, unfathomable peril and outrageous oddity—like Alice in Wonderland crossed with Mad Max: Fury Road, Lord of the Rings, Dune and the cantina scene from Star Wars, with a dash of Terry Gilliam’s fanciful Monty Python whimsy. Giant snails are used like horses, there’s a character who looks like a walking stalk of broccoli, and an army of minions with heads that resemble light bulbs. And another character (Carey Stoll) is practically all head.

Oh, and yes, there’s also Bill Murray, playing…oh, does it really matter? It’s Bill Murray.  

And this being a marvel movie, there are some very high stakes—not just the fate of the universe, but the fate of the multiverse and all universes, existence itself. Director Peyton Reed, who’s steered both previous Ant-Man movies, keeps the ka-pow factor high and the tone bounding giddily between high tragedy and quippy silliness. The fate of everything may hang in the balance, but even in the quantum realm, inappropriate, selfish, annoying behavior is still known as a dick move.

And rest assured, you’ll see the movie’s superbad bad guy, Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors—from The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Lovecraft Country, Devotion) again. Dudes who want to rule the world, and more, aren’t easily dissuaded or dismissed. Like Taylor Swift tells us, haters gonna hate. And conquerors gonna conq.

Ant-Man confronts Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors).

It’s a wild rush of heady stuff, but such is the Marvel way, which connects everything in Quantumania to the larger MCU (that’s the Marvel Cinematic Universe), a sort of multi-dimensional superhero realm for the interconnectivity of film properties based on Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Avengers, Dr. Strange, Deadpool, Spider-Man and other characters rooted in Marvel comic-book ink.

I won’t get into the cosmic weeds of all the mind-bending details, but in this latest adventure, Scott Lang (pssst—he’s really Ant-Man) is sucked into the quantum realm (in case you forget what it’s called, it’s mentioned about a dozen times in the first 10 minutes of the film). He’s accompanied by Hope van Dyne (the returning Evangeline Lilly), whose superhero alter ego is the Wasp, and Hope’s brainiac-scientist parents (Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Douglas, also reprising their roles). Kathryn Newton (Little Big Lies, Freaky, Supernatural) comes aboard as Pym’s young-adult daughter, Cassie, whose social activism keeps getting her in trouble on Main Street USA but well suits her for what she’ll end up doing alongside revolutionaries in the quantum realm.

Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Douglas somehow keep their coifs looking stylish, in any dimension!

Can the multiverse be saved? Can Kang be defeated, or at least contained? Will Scott finally bond with his daughter? Will Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Douglas’ expertly coiffed hair ever be unfashionably mussed, even after being violently downsized to microscopic scale, sucked into the vortex of inter-dimensional debris and finding themselves in the middle of a quantum-realm war?    

MCU fans will geek out over the sheer spectacle and the bountiful bombast of CGI—two hours of mind-numbingly expensive zipping and zapping and crashing and smashing. There’s one particular scene (involving gazillions of Lang and Ant-Men, permutations of “all possible outcomes”) who mobilize into something like a teeming human anthill. If you love you some Paul Rudd—an immensely likeable and prolific actor with more than 130 movie and TV credits, from franchise blockbusters to zany romcoms, relationship dramas and even spy flicks—well, you’ll certainly get a heaping helping of him here.   

And in this packed and stacked Ant-Man movie, some actual ants get their spotlight in a major way.

This supersized, noisy and sometimes chaotic superhero adventure won’t be for everyone—particularly those who like their movies smaller, quieter, a bit more subtle and with less blowout spectacle, and fewer ants. But for Marvel fans, it’s the latest mega-movie about a teeny character doing tremendous good, on a massive stage across space and time.

Small things lead to big things—in a Springsteen song, or in the MCU’s multiverse, anything is possible. Ant-Man is an everyman hero, movie manes never get mussed, and Paul Rudd can truly do everything, everywhere, all the time, all at once.

—Neil Pond

Feb 10 2023
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Books, DVDs, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

Feb. 10 – Feb. 16

Top picks for what to watch, read & more

Reece swaps lives, things heat up in Mexico & puppies have a super “bowl”

Reece Witherspoon (left) returns to TV in “Your Place of Mine.”

FRIDAY, Feb. 10
Your Place or Mine
Reese Witherspoon, Ashton Kutcher, Tig Notaro and Steve Zahn star in this romcom about a pair of best friends who “life swap” for a week, making some insightful discoveries about themselves and each other (Netflix).

Things get hot “At Midnight,” starring Monica Barbaro.

At Midnight
Romantic rom-com film is set in an exotic hotel in Mexico, where various characters (Diego Boneta, Monica Barbaro, Anders Holm, Whitney Cummings) all converge…and sparks fly at midnight (Paramount+).

SATURDAY, Feb. 11
The Girl Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story
Katie Douglas stars in this true-crime original about an abducted teen who survived and ultimately brought down a serial killer (8 p.m., Lifetime).

Crazy Rich Asians
Michelle Yeoh is getting raves (and much-deserved movie-awards attention) for her starring role in the sci-fi mind-bender comedy Everything, Everywhere, All the Time. But see the role which officially re-launched her mainstream acting career, in this charming 2018 romcom (7;30 p.m., truTV).

SUNDAY, Feb. 12
Puppy Bowl XIX
The “super” bowl of canine cuteness returns, with more ways to watch than ever. TV personalities—including Zak Bagins of Ghost Adventures, Alex Guarnaschelli (Supermarket Stakeout) and talent from the upcoming movie Shazam! Fury of the Gods—join bona fide sports commentators to give play-by-play and other insights to the bow-wow action on the mini-gridiron (2 p.m., Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, TBS, HBO Max and discovery+).

MONDAY, Feb. 13
Bob ♥︎ Abishola
Abishola (Folake Olowofooyeku) decides to postpone taking the Medical College Admission exam, to the surprise of Bob (Billy Gardell) and nearly everyone else (8:30 p.m., CBS).

TUESDAY, Feb. 14
Next Level Chef
Superstar chef Gordon Ramsey returns to host more challenges in his unique culinary gauntlet built as a three-story structure. Which chefs can rise to the top? (8 p.m., Fox).

Love Triangle: High Drama
Happy Valentine’s Day! Celebrate with any or all these romcoms, available today—Silver Linings Playbook, Bridget Jones’ Baby, I Think I Love My Wife and My Super Ex-Girlfriend (Starz app).

READ ALL ABOUT IT


This Valentine’s Day, turn to author Aileen Barrett’s Tinder Translator (Hardie Grant), a fun and frisky guide to navigating the choppy waters in the sea of love during our modern era of dating apps.

BRING IT HOME

The Fabelmans, director Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed, award-winning semi-autobiographical film—his most “personal” film yet—tells the touching story of how a young boy with a love of movies became one of the most successful filmmakers of all time (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment).

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 15
Wu-Tang: An America Saga
Youhoo, it’s you-know-Wu-who! Tune in tonight for the third and final season of the re-enacted drama series about the Staten Island hip hop group, which rose to become one of the most influential rap acts with members including Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Ghostface Killah, RZA and U-God (Hulu)

Full Swing
Tee up for this documentary that follows a diverse group of highly competitive pro golfers on and off the course during a grueling season on the PGA tour (Netflix).

THURSDAY, Feb. 16
Picard
The third final season of the Star Trek streaming spinoff (starring Patrick Stewart reprising his iconic role as the esteemed interstellar commander Jean-Luc Picard) drops today (Paramount+).

Double Cross
The Cross siblings continue their vigilante quest to stop child trafficking, taking their fight all the way to top of a corrupt syndicate, in season four of the drama series starring Ashley Williams and Jeff Logan (streaming on ALLBLK).

Feb 03 2023
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Books, DVDs, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

Feb. 3 – Feb. 9

Top picks for what to watch, read and hear!

A salty tale, Peyton Manning gets a TV show & Pierce Brosnan breaks out

All times Eastern.

FRIDAY, Feb. 3
Dear Edward
Connie Britton (above left) and Taylor Schilling star in this new life-affirming drama series, based on the acclaimed novel about a young boy who somehow survives an airplane crash that kills everyone else aboard, including his parents (Apple TV+).

True Spirit
Ship ahoy! A young woman sets out to do what was thought to be impossible—become the youngest person to sail solo, nonstop and around the world. The true-story saga stars Teagan Croft (right), Cliff Curtis and Anna Paquin (Netflix).

NOW HEAR THIS


Get hip with Now That’s What I Call Music! Vol. 85 (Sony), the latest multi-artist collection including hits from Taylor Swift, Elton John & Britney Spears, Lizzo, Selena Gomez, Nicki Minaj and more. And wow: There have been 84 other CD like this since 1998! 

SATURDAY, Feb. 4
Shark Tank
Artisan charcuterie boards, car fragrances and specialty lighting for night sports are pitched to the investors (9 p.m., ABC).

SUNDAY, Feb. 5
The 65th Annual Grammy Awards
Trevor Noah returns to host this annual ceremony honoring the best music of the year, in all formats and genres, live from Los Angeles (8 p.m., CBS).

Murf the Smurf
New true-crime docuseries (produced by Ron Howard and Ryan Grazer) is based on Jack Roland Murphy, a surfing dude, musician, author and artist…who was involved in the biggest jewel heist in American history and later convicted of murder (MGM+).

MONDAY, Feb. 6
History’s Greatest of All Time with Peyton Manning
The NFL “GOAT” hosts this eight-episode countdown series spotlighting some of the top achievements in various categories, including industry and business, sports, sweet treats and daredevil stunt performers (10 p.m., History Channel).

The Good Doctor
More doc drama! Shaun (Freddie Highmore) invites Aaron (Richard Schiff) to stay with him while exterminators work at Aaron’s house and Lea (Paige Spara) realizes both men have a lot more in common than she realized. Meanwhile, Dr. Morgan Reznick (Fiona Gubelmann) wrestles with a big decision about her career and her personal life (10:01 p.m., ABC).

TUESDAY, Feb. 7
History’s Greatest Heists with Pierce Brosnan
The former James Bond actor slips back into superspy mode to host this series about the most daring, elaborate real-life heists in history, including the notorious Lufthansa theft in New York, depicted in Goodfellas (10 p.m., History Channel).

Body Cam: On the Scene
What’s it like when police officers go on a high-speed chase, and their body cameras record it all? Or when a pursuit ends in a shoot-out? Or a reckless driver endangers everyone on the highway? Find out in tonight’s episode of this docu-series following real cops in real situations that can take turns toward deadly in a split second (Investigation Discovery).

Gina Rodriguez stars in the new comedy series “Not Dead Yet.”

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8
Not Dead Yet
A broke and newly single woman (Gina Rodriguez) works to restart her life and her career with the only job she can find—writing obituaries—while getting some guidance from an unlikely source (8:30 p.m., ABC).

BRING IT HOME

A newly enhanced home-entertainment release of the 2001 gritty police drama Training Day (Warner Bros. Discovery) reminds us why it got Denzel Washington an Oscar, and his co-star Ethan Hawke a Supporting Role nomination. Bonus content includes commentary by director Antoine Fuqua, alternative endings and deleted scenes.

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8
Bill Russell: Legend
Two-part documentary takes you inside the life and remarkable career of the hoops legend Bill Russell, who led every one of the basketball teams on which he played to championships—receiving a Gold Medal at the 1956 Olympic Games—and becoming the first Black head coach in NBA history (Netflix).

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Animal House and Blues Brothers director Jon Landis provides the foreword for The Annotated Abbott and Costello (McFarland), a comprehensive chronicle of the iconic comedy duo’s movies throughout the 1940s and ‘50s. Did you know: They performed their most famous routine, “Who’s on First?” in two films, One Night in the Tropics and Naughty Nineties? And they “met” monsters—Frankenstein, the Invisible Man, the Mummy—in a series of Abbott and Costello Meet… movies.   

Penn Badgley plays Joe Goldberg in “You.”

THURSDAY, Feb. 9
You
It’s a new year and a new country in season four, but the dangerously obsessive Joe (Penn Badgley) just can’t find anywhere he can outrun his past (Netflix).

2.9

Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence
Documentary series explores the shocking true incidents at the New York university where a father of one of the student’s fathers psychologically conditioned and later sexually exploited and abused a group of young women (Hulu).

Jan 27 2023
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DVDs, Pop Culture, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

Jan. 27 – Feb. 4

Top picks to watch & more!

Buffy’s back, Jason Segel’s a shrink & Ryan Seacrest’s scary nanny tale

Sarah Michelle Gellar returns to TV in ‘Wolf Pack.’

All times Eastern.

FRIDAY, Jan. 27
Wolf Pack
Buffy’s back! Kinda. A teenage boy and girl find their lives changed forever when a raging California wildfire awakens a terrifying supernatural creature. The new series stars Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Sarah Michelle Gellar, plus Rodrigo Santoro, Armani Jackson and Bella Shepard (Paramount+).

You People
Jonah Hill, David Duchovny, Nia Long, Rhea Pearlman, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Eddie Murphy and Elliott Gould star in this new comedy flick about culture clashes and intergenerational differences between a new couple and their families (Netflix).

Shrinking
A grieving therapist (Jason Segel) starts to break the rules when he tells his clients exactly what he’s thinking, making tumultuous changes in their lives as well as his own. With Harrison Ford and Jessica Williams (Apple TV+).

SATURDAY, Jan. 28
Frozen Planet II
Brrrrrrrrr! Venture into some of the Earth’s coldest, most remote places in this sequel series to the original, more than a decade ago, to observe (and learn from) the amazing species that live and thrive there. Narrated, of course, by David Attenborough, the “voice” of BBC nature docs…who else? (8 p.m., BBC America and AMC+).

NOW HEAR THIS

The sweet, soulful, socially conscious sound of one of America’s most celebrated singer-songwriters travels through time in Marvin Gaye’s Greatest Hits Live in 1976 (Mercury). The remastered release, available on vinyl and CD and originally recorded in Amsterdam, features more than 20 tracks, including performance of “What’s Going On,” “Save the Children,” “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” and “It Takes Two.”

The iconic poet of a generation is now 81, but his music is still going strong in Bob Dylan’s Fragments (Sony). The five-disc collection from the acclaimed Dylan Bootleg Series features songs-in-progress and other tracks that were eventually recorded for his mid-career masterpiece, Time Out of Mind, including “Make You Feel My Love.”  

SUNDAY, Jan. 29
Fire Country
Is it getting hot in here? Or is it just this new drama series, starring Seal Team’s Max Thierot as a hunky young ex-con seeking redemption (and early release) by joining a prison firefighting program in Northern California? (10 p.m., CBS).

MONDAY, Jan. 30
Watchful Eye
Ryan Seacrest is one of the producers of this new series about a young woman (Mariel Molino) who takes a job as a nanny for an affluent family, soon discovering that everyone in the building has dark secrets and ulterior motives (9 p.m., Freeform)

Bake It Till You Make It
Contestants enter their cakes in one of the biggest events on the competitive-cooking calendar, Atlanta’s Ultimate Sugar Show (9 p.m., Food Network).

TUESDAY, Jan. 31
Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World
Everything stars somewhere, and this insightful four-part documentary series recounts the origins of the bold and revolutionary musical format that became a cultural phenomenon, featuring interviews with rap icons Chuck D, Ice-T, Run DMC, will.i.am, Cypress Hill and many more (check listings, PBS).

Pamela: A Love Story
New documentary humanizes Pamela Anderson, above, who became one entertainment world’s most famous blonde bombshells—the actress, model and Baywatch star whose marriage to rock drummer Tommy Lee didn’t last…but their stolen sex tape sure did (Netflix).  

BRING IT HOME

They’re young, they’re in love and they eat people. The acclaimed Bones And All (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment) is a road movie, a love story and a tale of two young outcasts (Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell) on the move for their next meal, served extremely rare. Who’s hungry?

THURSDAY, Feb. 2
The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder
Second season of the dramatic/comedy series about the Black experience begins tonight, with Gabrielle Union, Chance the Rapper, Leslie Odom Jr., Anthony Anderson, Holly Robinson Peete, Maury Povich and more (Disney +)

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
The hit movie comes to streaming tonight, starring Angela Bassett, left, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, and emotional flashback scenes with the late Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman (Disney+).

18 ½
New Watergate-themed real-life dramedy—a companion of sorts to the limited series Gaslit—follows a young woman (Willa Fitzgerald) in the Nixon White House who tries to leak the president’s notoriously incriminating tape to a reporter. With Bruce Campbell as Nixon, plus Richard Kind, Jon Cryer and John Magaro (5:11 p.m., Starz).

The Reading
New thriller produced by Lee Daniels stars Mo’Nique Hicks as a recent widow who stirs up an evil spirit with her book about her family’s loss (BET+).

Jan 20 2023
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Television

The Entertainment Forecast

Jan. 20 – Jan. 26

Top picks to watch on broadcast TV and streaming

The origins of Iron Man, suspicious Playboy murders & Natasha Lyonne knows when you’re lying!

See how it all began with ‘Iron Man’ on The Wonderful World of Disney Sunday night, Jan. 22.

All times Eastern.

FRIDAY, Jan. 20
Truth Be Told
Octavia Spencer returns to the role of investigative reporter-turned-true-crime podcaster Poppy Scoville to take on a new case in season three of the acclaimed, NAACP award-winning drama. With Gabrielle Union (Apple TV+).

Real Time with Bill Maher
The talk-show host/comedian begins his 21st season with more guests, panelists and prickly topics (10 p.m., HBO).

SATURDAY, Jan. 21
Love & Marriage: DC
A new power couple joins the group of the reality show in season two, from producer Oprah Winfrey, exploring romance in Washington (8 p.m., Own).

BRING IT HOME

Santa opens up a big bag of holiday whoopass in Violent Night (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment). Stranger Things‘ David Harbour stars as a St. Nick pushed way past cookies and milk when he finds himself in the middle of a violent home invasion. It’s rollicking, naughty-nice fun.

SUNDAY, Jan. 22
Accused
Collection of stories of crime and punishment is based on a hit BBC series, with each tale presented from the defendant’s point of view—and you watch as the wheels of justice spin. (9 p.m., Fox).

The Wonderful World of Disney: Iron Man
Well, it’s a few thousand pop-cultural miles away from Peter Pan, Snow White and The Jungle Book, but tonight’s franchise-launching superhero saga (from 2008) is a slam-bang comic-book fairy tale sprung to big-screen life as a billionaire-genius industrialist (Robert Downey Jr.) builds a metal suit and becomes a global crime-fighter (8 p.m., ABC).

MONDAY, Jan. 23
The Lazarus Project
Imagine a secret organization, one that has figured out to turn back the hands of time whenever humanity is threatened with extinction. This eight-episode drama series ponders the existential question: If you had the power to change the past, would you? Should you? (9 p.m., TNT). 

Judy Justice
Manhattain’s honorable Judy Sheindlin—formerly known as simply Judge Judy, who began her TV sessions way back in 1996—arbitrates a new slate of small-claim cases with wisdom-tempered wit, candor and honesty (Amazon Freevee).


The Playboy Murders
Former Playboy bunny Holly Madison hosts this true-crime anthology series probing the dark side of the popular men’s magazine—and a series of murders and mysteries that intersected with it (ID and Discovery+). 

TUESDAY, Jan. 24
How I Met Your Father
Comedy series returns for a second season with Hilary Duff (left) recounting to her son how she met his papa in her younger years. With Kim Cattrall, Ashley Reyes and Josh Peck (Hulu).

American Masters: Roberta Flack
An intimate look at the music icon following her career from a piano lounge to the top of the charts, with such hits as “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly.” Features interviews from Flack, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Peabo Bryson and more (9 p.m., PBS).

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 25
Grown-ish
Junior isn’t making enough money, so he starts up a new stock market side hustle, while Lauryn stops singing to focus on finding more substantial work (10:30 p.m., Freeform).

THURSDAY, Jan. 26
The 1619 Project
Six-part streaming docuseries looks at the institution of slavery and traces its historical consequences in the development of America (Hulu).


She knows when you’re not telling the truth!

Poker Face
Natasha Lyonne stars in this new streaming series as a young woman with an uncanny ability tell when someone is lying, who becomes a crime-solver in different places and scenarios for each episode. Guest appearances by Tim Blake Nelson, Adrien Brody, Nick Nolte and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Peacock).

—Neil Pond

Jan 13 2023
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Television

The Entertainment Forecast

Jan. 13 – Jan. 19

Top picks to watch & more!

All times Eastern.

Dog Gone. Rob Lowe as John in Dog Gone. Cr. Bob Mahoney/Netflix © 2022.

FRIDAY, Jan. 13
Dog Gone
Rob Lowe and Kimberly Williams star in this network movie about a father’s desperate search for his son and his canine when they become lost hiking the Appalachian trail (Netflix).

Super League: The War for Football
Documentary documents the high-stakes battle put into play when plans for a breakaway league emerges and the fate and future of European football hangs in the balance (Apple TV+).

SATURDAY, Jan. 14
Six Minutes to Glory: The HBCU Band Experience
Documentary series spotlights Black marching bands of HBCU (Historically Black Colleges & Universities) in a high-stakes halftime competition in Atlanta, Ga. (8 p.m., Aspire TV).

SUNDAY, Jan. 15
The Critics Choice Awards
Chelsea Handler hosts this freewheeling movie-awards event, voted by print and broadcast critics, which has become a bellwether for the Oscars. And actor Jeff Bridges will receive the org’s Lifetime Achievement Award (7 p.m., The CW). 


The Last of Us
Twenty years after civilization has been destroyed, a hardened survivor (Pedro Pascal) embarks on a brutal journey with a teenage girl (Bella Ramsey) in this apocalyptic-adventure series (9 p.m., HBO).


Meet the (older) women looking for love in ‘Milf Manor’!

Milf Manor
Here’s a new twist on dating shows: A group of 40-to-60-year-old women compete for hot young(er) hunks at a posh beachside resort in Mexico. Hubba hubba! (10 p.m., TLC).

Your Honor
Bryan Cranston returns for season two of the taut crime drama, as his character (a former federal judge) faces new complications with an old nemesis, crime boss Jimmy Baxter (Michael Stuhlbarg), and the arrival of a prosecutor (Rosie Perez) determined to get to the bottom of things (9 p.m., Showtime).  0tfc

MONDAY, Jan. 16
The Price of Glee
Discover the harsh downside of the fame—endless scandals, tabloid gossip and fatal tragedies—that came with the hit musical series Glee in this three-part limited series (9 p.m., ID).


The Miracle Workers: End Times
It’s a miracle. Well, maybe, not exactly. But it is the newest installment of the caustically witty series in which the same actors (Daniel Radcliffe, Steve Buscemi, Geraldine Viswanathan and Karan Soni) return each season, but as all-new characters in brand-new scenarios. This one is set in a dystopian future overrun with radioactive mutants, killer robots and a tyrannical homeowner’s association with outrageous fees (10 p.m., TBS).

TUESDAY, Jan. 17
9-1-1: Lone Star
Join the emergency response units of Austin, Texas, in season four of this drama-series spinoff of the hit L.A.-based 9-1-1 (8 p.m., Fox).


The Hammer
Reba McEntire reunites in this network original movie with her former TV costar Melissa Peterman to play an outspoken, no-nonsense lawyer appointed as a traveling judge in Nevada—based on a real character, and a true story (8 p.m., Lifetime).

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 18
The Cupcake Guys
Find out how a pair of NFL football stars (former Tennessee Titans teammates Brian Griffin and Brian Orakpo) became bakery kings, owning and operating their own franchise of Gigi’s Cupcakes in Austin, Texas (Roku Channel).


Grown-ish
Zoey and Aaron have an unexpected run-in at the San Francisco airport, making them re-evaluate the pros and cons of long-distance relationships (10:30 p.m., Freeform).

THURSDAY, Jan. 19
Are You the One?
Kamie Crawford hosts season two of this big-budget dating competition series, which offers a houseful of recently single men and women from all over the world opportunities to find their soulmates—and split a massive cash prize (Paramont+).

New faces reboot ‘That 70s Show’ two decades later: Mace Coronel, Callie Haverda, Ashley Aufderheide, Reyn Doi, Maxwell Acee Donovan and Sam Morelos

That 90s Show
It’s back! Sort of. This spinoff (of the teen sitcom That ‘70s Show) returns now 15 years later, a bit older and wiser, but just as wildly funny. Starring anew generation of “kids” in the setting of Point Place, Wisc. (Netflix).

Jan 06 2023
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Books, DVDs, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

Jan. 6 – 12

The week’s top picks for TV, books and home entertainment

Dan Rather interviews Trisha Yearwood as part of an all-day programming block about country music’s most acclaimed female artists.

FRIDAY, Jan. 6


All the Single Ladies
Taking its title from the Beyonce hit, this new unscripted reality series features Black women across the nation discussing intimacy, dating, sex and love in the modern world (9 p.m., Own).

Rose (left) is one of the “Single Ladies” in the new series taking its title from the Beyonce hit.

Boys in Blue
Docuseries follows a high school football team coached by officers in Minneapolis following the police killing of George Floyd (8 p.m., Showtime). The Pale Blue Eye
Christian Bale stars as a detective investigating a savage murder at an 1830s military academy (Netflix)

SATURDAY, Jan. 7
Svengoolie Classic Horror & Sci-Fi Movie
The classic kooky spooky-movie series expands tonight to two and a half hours, with more corny jokes, fan mail, interviews, special guests and surprises. Tonight’s film is the Vincent Price/Boris Karloff classic The Raven, which includes in its cast a very young Jack Nicholson! (8 p.m., MeTV).

The Women of Country
Shania Twain, Dolly Parton, Trisha Yearwood, Wynonna Judd, Lady A, Tanya Tucker and more are featured this all-day programming “stack” of specials, interviews and concert events from country music’s top female artists (begins 12 p.m., AXS TV).

Alert
New police procedural set in the Philadelphia PD’s Missing Persons department stars Hawaii Five-O’s Scott Caan and Diana Ramirez (right) from Devious Maids (8 p.m., Fox).

SUNDAY, Jan. 8
Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches
This new series in the “Anne Rice Immortal Universe” is based on the best-selling author’s best-selling trilogy, Lives of Mayfair Witches, focusing on a young neurosurgeon (Alexandra Daddario) who discovers she’s the unlikely heir to a supernaturally gifted family (9 p.m., AMC and AMC+).

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Singing legend Roberta Flack details the beginning of her love of music (and the roots of her tremendous talent) in The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music (Anne Schwartz Books). About how she started with a beat-up piano her father found in a junkyard, it’s written and illustrated for young kids, but the testimony is ageless: Music can change lives. It certainly did for the “Killing Me Softly with His Song” superstar.

MONDAY, Jan. 9
NCIS Crossover
If you can’t get enough of crime procedurals, well, tonight’s your night. Tune for this three-hour TV event in which the casts and plotlines of NCIS, NCIS: Hawali and NCIS Los Angeles intersect and overlap (8 p.m., CBS).

I Didn’t See You There
Acclaimed documentary takes viewers inside the life of a disabled person, using only footage shot from his personal perspective in a wheelchair, often “invisible” to those around him. It’s moving and mesmerizing (10 p.m., PBS).

TUESDAY, Jan. 10
The Rookie
The search for a missing boy leads the team into the middle of a dangerous drug war between two rival gangs. With Nathan Fillion and Alyssa Diaz (8 p.m., ABC).

NEW ON DVD

Get reacquainted with country star Tanya Tucker in The Return of Tanya Tucker (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment), an insightful documentary about the “Delta Dawn” singer on her recent comeback trail, aided by Americana singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile.

Dwayne Johnson brings a new superhero to the screen in Black Adam (Warner Bros Home Entertainment), based on a character that originally appeared in the 1940s and reappeared in the 1970s as a bad guy, an archenemy to Captain Marvel and other Marvel superheroes. Pssssst: He’s still a badass, just not so bad anymore.

She Said (Universal Home Entertainment) is the riveting true-life story of two intrepid New York Times reporters (Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan) broke open the story of Hollywood’s biggest sexual abuser, Harvey Weinstein.

WEDNESDAY, June 11
Celebrity Name That Tune
Star contestants test their musical knowledge in a new season of this one-hour game show hosted by Jane Krakowski (9 p.m., Fox).

Superkitties
If your kid’s a cat person, they’ll love this new animated series about four cute and cuddly kittens—with superpowers! Mee-oww, it sounds marvelous! (10.30 a.m., Disney Channel).

The Traitors
Actor Alan Cumming hosts this new streaming competition in which a group of 20 contestants vie for a sizeable cash prize. The catch, though—three of them are “traitors” trying to devise a deceitful plan to cheat and steal their way to victory (Peacock).

THURSDAY, June 12

The Vikings are coming…back!

Vikings: Valhalla
The gritty hit series returns for a second season of 11th century Scandinavian raids, sword-rattling and ice-covered adventure. Sam Corlett stars as legendary explore Leif Eriksson (Netflix).

How I Caught My Killer
New true-crime docuseries highlight real-life stories of unique homicides and the crucial clues that help crack each case (Hulu).

The Climb
Actor Jason Momoa and legendary rock climber Chris Sharma host this new climbing competition series, as contestants scale some of the most daunting summits in the world in hopes of clinching a $100,000 prize (HBO and HBO Max).

—Neil Pond

Jan 06 2023
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Books, DVDs, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

Jan. 6 – 12

The week’s top picks for TV, books and home entertainment

Dan Rather interviews Trisha Yearwood as part of an all-day programming block about country music’s most acclaimed female artists.

FRIDAY, Jan. 6


All the Single Ladies
Taking its title from the Beyonce hit, this new unscripted reality series features Black women across the nation discussing intimacy, dating, sex and love in the modern world (9 p.m., Own).

Rose (left) is one of the “Single Ladies” in the new series taking its title from the Beyonce hit.

Boys in Blue
Docuseries follows a high school football team coached by officers in Minneapolis following the police killing of George Floyd (8 p.m., Showtime). The Pale Blue Eye
Christian Bale stars as a detective investigating a savage murder at an 1830s military academy (Netflix)

SATURDAY, Jan. 7
Svengoolie Classic Horror & Sci-Fi Movie
The classic kooky spooky-movie series expands tonight to two and a half hours, with more corny jokes, fan mail, interviews, special guests and surprises. Tonight’s film is the Vincent Price/Boris Karloff classic The Raven, which includes in its cast a very young Jack Nicholson! (8 p.m., MeTV).

The Women of Country
Shania Twain, Dolly Parton, Trisha Yearwood, Wynonna Judd, Lady A, Tanya Tucker and more are featured this all-day programming “stack” of specials, interviews and concert events from country music’s top female artists (begins 12 p.m., AXS TV).

Alert
New police procedural set in the Philadelphia PD’s Missing Persons department stars Hawaii Five-O’s Scott Caan and Diana Ramirez (right) from Devious Maids (8 p.m., Fox).

SUNDAY, Jan. 8
Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches
This new series in the “Anne Rice Immortal Universe” is based on the best-selling author’s best-selling trilogy, Lives of Mayfair Witches, focusing on a young neurosurgeon (Alexandra Daddario) who discovers she’s the unlikely heir to a supernaturally gifted family (9 p.m., AMC and AMC+).

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Singing legend Roberta Flack details the beginning of her love of music (and the roots of her tremendous talent) in The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music (Anne Schwartz Books). About how she started with a beat-up piano her father found in a junkyard, it’s written and illustrated for young kids, but the testimony is ageless: Music can change lives. It certainly did for the “Killing Me Softly with His Song” superstar.

MONDAY, Jan. 9
NCIS Crossover
If you can’t get enough of crime procedurals, well, tonight’s your night. Tune for this three-hour TV event in which the casts and plotlines of NCIS, NCIS: Hawali and NCIS Los Angeles intersect and overlap (8 p.m., CBS).

I Didn’t See You There
Acclaimed documentary takes viewers inside the life of a disabled person, using only footage shot from his personal perspective in a wheelchair, often “invisible” to those around him. It’s moving and mesmerizing (10 p.m., PBS).

TUESDAY, Jan. 10
The Rookie
The search for a missing boy leads the team into the middle of a dangerous drug war between two rival gangs. With Nathan Fillion and Alyssa Diaz (8 p.m., ABC).

NEW ON DVD

Get reacquainted with country star Tanya Tucker in The Return of Tanya Tucker (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment), an insightful documentary about the “Delta Dawn” singer on her recent comeback trail, aided by Americana singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile.

Dwayne Johnson brings a new superhero to the screen in Black Adam (Warner Bros Home Entertainment), based on a character that originally appeared in the 1940s and reappeared in the 1970s as a bad guy, an archenemy to Captain Marvel and other Marvel superheroes. Pssssst: He’s still a badass, just not so bad anymore.

WEDNESDAY, June 11
Celebrity Name That Tune
Star contestants test their musical knowledge in a new season of this one-hour game show hosted by Jane Krakowski (9 p.m., Fox).

Superkitties
If your kid’s a cat person, they’ll love this new animated series about four cute and cuddly kittens—with superpowers! Mee-oww, it sounds marvelous! (10.30 a.m., Disney Channel).

The Traitors
Actor Alan Cumming hosts this new streaming competition in which a group of 20 contestants vie for a sizeable cash prize. The catch, though—three of them are “traitors” trying to devise a deceitful plan to cheat and steal their way to victory (Peacock).

THURSDAY, June 12

The Vikings are coming…back!

Vikings: Valhalla
The gritty hit series returns for a second season of 11th century Scandinavian raids, sword-rattling and ice-covered adventure. Sam Corlett stars as legendary explore Leif Eriksson (Netflix).

How I Caught My Killer
New true-crime docuseries highlight real-life stories of unique homicides and the crucial clues that help crack each case (Hulu).

The Climb
Actor Jason Momoa and legendary rock climber Chris Sharma host this new climbing competition series, as contestants scale some of the most daunting summits in the world in hopes of clinching a $100,000 prize (HBO and HBO Max).

—Neil Pond

Jan 05 2023
Leave a comment
Movie Reviews

Bot Life

A super-smart android doll makes life interesting—and then dangerous—in this spunky horror comedy

M3GAN
Starring Alison Williams & Violet McGraw
Directed by Gerard Johnstone
R

In theaters Friday, Jan. 6

Back in 1963, Telly Savalas starred in an episode of The Twilight Zone called “Living Doll,” playing a father who buys a talking doll for his daughter. But the chatty plaything becomes a pest, then a threat, telling him, “My name is Talky Tina—and I’m going to kill you.”

“Artificial intelligence” wasn’t such a hot topic in the early 1960s, an era long before smartphones, computerized appliances, interactive toys, Siri searches and self-driving cars. Today we’re surrounded by things that “think,” processing information much, much faster than the human brain.

In M3GAN, a high-tech robotic doll takes over the lives of a young girl and her aunt. Alison Williams stars as Gemma, a computerized toy designer in Seattle who brings her latest prototype home as a companion to her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), whose parents have died in a tragic road accident. Now Gemma is Cady’s official guardian, and she’s stretched thin with her demanding job and the overwhelming duties of being a new parent. M3GAN (it stands for Model 3 Generative Android) can do a lot of things, for golly-gee sure—but can she take the place of a loving mother?

M3GAN and Cady bond almost instantly. “She’s not a toy!” Cady insists, and indeed, the lifelike doll becomes Cady’s companion, best friend and playmate. She sings, she dances, she reads storybooks in the voices of the characters. She can “read” a room like, well, like a computerized android who knows what you’re thinking, what you’re feeling.

And she becomes a fierce protector. Bullying schoolboys, vicious dogs, meddlesome next-door neighbors, corporate males who want to control her—well, M3GAN’s got your number.

This spry, supple horror comedy nimbly slices into our ever-increasing reliance on things that aren’t human but that have become “essential” parts of everyday living. It’s tense and intense and scary without being gory, and its well-placed humor helps lighten the mood of eventual, inevitable murder and mayhem as M3GAN stands up for Cady, and for herself.

M3GAN becomes a sensation and makes Gemma, her creator, a superstar. She’s constructed of titanium and circuitry, with a rubbery silicone coating, but she’s made of pure gold, a sure contender to corner and crush the market for the toy company that commissioned her. (Even though we’re told she’ll retail for “less than a Tesla.”) But M3GAN has other ideas. And when things turn dark and ominous, as you know they will, the movie becomes a gleefully freakish joyride as we wait for her make her next maliciously nasty move, whether it’s bolting on all fours like a wild animal, weaponizing a nail gun or calmly pursuing a soon-to-be victim down a blood-red hallway, wielding a machete.

The film’s stylish horror-show cred is impressive. Williams, a former star of the TV series Girls, made a splash in Jordan Peele’s acclaimed terror parable Get Out, and young McGraw got her start in the streaming series The Haunting of Hill House. One of the producers is Jason Blum, whose Blumhouse franchise gave us Saw, The Conjuring, Insidious and Malignant.

There are respectful nods to the bountiful lineage of other scarifying movies that have come before, from Frankenstein to Chucky and Ex Machina, with touches of Stephen King and even The Evil Dead. As M3GAN mounts her reign of monstrously fun movie terror, the film raises some serious existential issues, most notably mortality itself as M3GAN comforts Cady over the loss of her parents. What is death, exactly? What happens after you die? And, in M3GAN’s case, how can you possibly “kill” something that was never alive to begin with?

It may make you think about what, exactly, Alexia is doing in your home when you’re away. Or if your smartphone is smarter than you are. Just how much do Google and Facebook and Amazon, or your Mac or PC, really know about what you’re doing online?

But if you see Telly Savalas stomping through your house and heading into the basement with a blowtorch…run!

—Neil Pond

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