Eliana Willis

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    ‘Deli Boys,’ Plus 9 Things to Watch on TV this Week

    A new Hulu comedy premieres, “The Righteous Gemstones” are back and “The Traitors” wraps up its third season.Between streaming and cable, there is a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that air or stream this week, March 3-9. Details and times are subject to change.Things aren’t going as expected.On the Hulu thriller “Paradise,” things took an unexpected turn right from the beginning — and have only gotten more twisty from there. The show follows Xavier Collins, a secret service agent played by Sterling K. Brown who is in charge of protecting President Cal Bradford (James Marsden). Slight spoilers ahead: The end of the first episode showed that Xavier, Cal and a few lucky civilians have been living in an underground city after the world ended — and that the president is actually dead. In a series of flashbacks, the rest of the episodes have revealed how things got to where they are, and this week’s finale will reveal who killed the president. Streaming Tuesday on Hulu.Netflix’s lush historical drama “The Leopard” follows the Salina family, Sicilian aristocrats who are bracing for the Giuseppe Garibaldi’s Redshirt guerrillas to conquer the island in the 19th century. The 1958 book, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, became one of the highest selling novels in Italy. If not for a look at the history, tune in for the stunning location and enviable outfits. Streaming on Wednesday on Netflix.What happens when you have been raised in the cushy world of wealth but your father’s death has left nothing but his convenience store empire, which is actually a crime front? “Deli Boys,” a new comedy, answers that question. Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh star as brothers who are trying to maintain a deli counter while also dealing with a Peruvian cartel and the Italian mafia. Streaming Thursday on Hulu.An inside look at sports.It’s no secret that Boston takes their sports seriously. The new documentary series “Celtics City” transports viewers back to the founding of the Boston Celtics N.B.A. team in 1946 and forward to their championship win in 2024. The show features archival footage and interviews with past and present players, including Bob Cousy, Larry Bird, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Monday at 9 p.m. on HBO and streaming on Max.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3, Episode 3: The Snake Show

    The guests are getting restless, and Mike White seems ready to start making messes.Season 3, Episode 3: ‘The Meaning of Dreams’In last week’s “The White Lotus,” the three gal-pals — who are supposed to be on a bonding trip in Thailand — took turns pairing off and, in insinuating whispers, tearing each other apart. Kate and Jaclyn muttered anxiously about Laurie’s draining divorce, stalled career and delinquent daughter. Kate and Laurie took shots at Jaclyn’s cosmetic procedures and sham marriage.So who does that leave? Ah yes, Kate. When will she leave the room and get snipped to bits by her oldest and dearest?It happens this week — and it partly happens to her face. And Kate is not the only one who feels a bit bummed out and betrayed in this episode. On Day 3 at the White Lotus, the guests are getting restless. After two hours spent creating a context for various situations to go awry, the show’s creator, Mike White, seems ready to start making those messes.Let’s start with the Kate scenes, which, in a way, represent this episode’s biggest moments of shocking violence — if emotional violence counts. The inciting incident for the Kate takedown is an “energy healing” session Laurie has with Valentin. The other ladies have been urging Laurie to have a fling with the Vladivostok-born Valentin. (It’s a fling kind of weekend, they say. Plus, Valentin insists he left Russia before the Ukraine invasion, so he is not politically problematic … probably.)White goes hard with the sound design and editing during the energy healing session. As Valentin holds his hands just above Laurie’s body, the soundtrack is filled with eruptive moans and sighs, woven through the percussive, chiming musical score. When the ladies reunite, Laurie jokes, “I haven’t been not-touched by a man like that in a long time.”That’s when Kate makes a surprising confession: She finds all this new age healing stuff “goofy,” “spooky” and “kind of witchy.” When Jaclyn suggests that eastern spiritual practices are superior to Christianity because they are more empowering to women, Kate defends the church she has been attending since moving to Texas. This leads to several probing questions. Is this, like, a “real Texan church, with bible-thumpers?” (Kate, noncommittal: “They’re nice people, really good families.”) Does talking politics ever get awkward? (“Why would it?”) Is Kate a conservative now? (“I’m an independent.”) Did Kate vote for Trump? (Long pause, and then, “Are we really gonna talk about Trump tonight?”)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘S.N.L.’ Reprises the Trump-Zelensky Oval Office Face-Off

    Mike Myers, as Elon Musk, adds an extra measure of crazy to an already bizarre moment in MAGA-era foreign policy.A shockingly combative White House meeting between President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine may have precipitated a diplomatic crisis and signaled a fissure in the longstanding relationship between the United States and Europe. But the incident provided ample grist for the satirical mill on “Saturday Night Live” in the first new broadcast after its 50th anniversary celebration.This weekend’s show, hosted by Shane Gillis and featuring the musical guest Tate McRae, began with a voice-over that declared the meeting between Trump and Zelensky had gone “really, really well,” adding, “Everyone who watched felt at ease and thought, ‘the world is now a safer place.’”The “S.N.L.” replay of this meeting began with Mikey Day as Zelensky and James Austin Johnson in his recurring role as Trump, introducing himself as “President and CEO of Gaza Hotel and Casino” and saying that he welcomed Zelensky to “this incredible trap; it’s going to be a big, beautiful trap, and we’re going to attack him very soon for no reason.”Bowen Yang, playing Vice President JD Vance, chimed in, saying, “Watch out, ’cause this kitty’s got claws.”Turning to Marcello Hernández, who was playing Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Johnson asked, “Are you excited to attack our European ally?”Hernández gave a vacant stare into the camera and replied, “Um, no Inglés.”Johnson also said he thanked Zelensky for “dressing like casual ‘Star Trek,’” adding that he loved “Star Trek” because “there’s no D.E.I.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    The 9 ‘White Lotus’ Characters We Keep Seeing Every Season

    A luxury hotel marries the exotic and the familiar: The location may be new and the fruits at the breakfast buffet varied, but the thread count of the sheets, the indulgence of the staff, the sumptuousness of the spa — these remain the same.“The White Lotus,” Mike White’s HBO show about the guests and workers of a five-star resort collection, knows this well. Maybe too well? If the surroundings for the third season of this cringingly comic, lightly murderous anthology series are different — with Koh Samui, Thailand, replacing Maui (Season 1) and Sicily (Season 2) — the characters haven’t really changed. (And is there at least one uncomfortable scene aboard a boat? You bet your yachting whites.) So garnish your poolside cocktail, tie on your sarong and see if you can spot White’s favorite types.Handsome Jerk Due for a ReckoningPatrick Schwarzenegger is this season’s obnoxious handsome man.Fabio Lovino/HBOIn Season 1 it was the privileged mama’s boy, Shane (Jake Lacy). In Season 2, it was Cameron (Theo James), a moneyman who managed to be both smarmy and oblivious.Thailand’s entitled jackass, enrobed in family money, is Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), a finance bro who eschews local cuisine in favor of protein shakes and complains when his massage doesn’t include a “happy ending.” It is hard to imagine someone more in need of a comeuppance, but just deserts are rarely on White’s hotel menu.Uptight Workaholic Having a Bad TimeJason Isaacs plays a businessman stressing his way through his vacation.Fabio Lovino/HBOWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    The Streaming Rush to Turn Scripture Into Scripts

    After the success of “The Chosen,” Amazon and Netflix are converting Bible stories into films and TV shows with “Game of Thrones”-style intrigue and romantic comedy elements.A once-beloved king slips into madness as wary confidants surround him, breathless for his next maneuver.A soldier wrestles with his dueling loyalties toward family and friendship.A young man from a humble background defeats a brute, not knowing that the victory sets him on a path to ascend into power.With its interpersonal intrigue and battlefield bloodshed, “House of David” looks like it could be an alternate-universe of “Game of Thrones.” But rather than an adaptation of a high fantasy franchise from the 1990s, its source material goes back millenniums.“House of David,” a series that premiered on Amazon Prime Video on Thursday, tells the story of David, the biblical shepherd who used a sling and stone to defeat the giant Goliath before assuming King Saul’s throne. It is part of the original faith-based programming that streaming services are unveiling to court the viewers who have made “The Chosen,” a prestige drama about the life of Jesus Christ, one of the most successful crowdfunded television or film projects of all time.“The sheer size of the audience is enormous,” said Jon Erwin, who pitched “House of David” to Amazon and co-directed several of the first season’s eight episodes. “It is the largest underserved niche audience in the world.”Viewership figures from streaming shows are rarely made public, but the team behind “The Chosen” estimates that the show has been watched by more than 280 million unique viewers worldwide, a third of whom it says are not religious. The hit show feels more like a workplace comedy-drama, a version of “The West Wing” set in Galilee, than the direct evangelism of the widely translated “The Jesus Film” (1979) or the storybook sermons of the 1990s animated series “VeggieTales.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Angie Stone, Hip-Hop Pioneer Turned Neo-Soul Singer, Dies at 63

    After having success as a member of the Sequence, an early female rap group, she re-emerged in the 1990s as a practitioner of sultry, laid-back R&B.Angie Stone, a hip-hop pioneer in the late 1970s with the Sequence, one of the first all-female rap groups, who later switched gears as a solo R&B star with hits like “No More Rain (In This Cloud)” and “Wish I Didn’t Miss You,” died on Saturday in Montgomery, Ala. She was 63.Her agent, Deborah Champagne, said she died in a hospital after being involved in a car crash following a performance.Alongside musicians like Erykah Badu, Macy Gray and Lauryn Hill, Ms. Stone was part of the neo-soul movement of the late 1990s and 2000s, which blended traditional soul with contemporary R&B, pop and jazz fusion. Her first album, “Black Diamond” (1999), was certified gold, as was her sophomore effort, “Mahogany Soul” (2001).A prolific songwriter with a sultry alto voice, Ms. Stone specialized in songs that combined laid-back tempos with layered instrumentation and vocals.“Angie Stone will stand proud alongside Lauryn Hill as a songwriter, producer and singer with all the props in place to become a grande dame of the R&B world in the next decade,” Billboard magazine wrote in 1999.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 3, Episode 4 Recap: Judge, Jury and …

    The girls (and Travis) put Coach Ben on trial. The stakes are very high, the legal qualifications very low.Season 3, Episode 4: ‘12 Angry Girls and 1 Drunk Travis’What does justice look like to the Yellowjackets? It’s not pretty, it’s not logical, it’s often deeply unfair, and it’s all on display in this week’s episode.The centerpiece is a trial in the woods in the 1990s. The girls, having now found Ben, elect to decide his fate by mimicking an episode “Law & Order.” They choose lawyers — Tai is the prosecutor and Misty is the defense — and fashion a makeshift courtroom.It’s unclear what they plan to do with Ben if they find him guilty, but death is surely on the table. And yet, they also seem like kids playing dress up — which they are. As is familiar for “Yellowjackets,” childlike behavior and real stakes make for a potent concoction.We watch as the Yellowjackets’ warped sense of justice extends into the present day. There are two threads that emphasize that. First, there is Jeff and Shauna. Jeff is worried about his and Shauna’s massively bad karma, so he signs them up to volunteer at the senior home where Misty works. That becomes too emotionally intense for Shauna after she winds up locked inside a walk-in freezer, so she decides to replace a local cat that has been missing for years by just adopting a different cat. Sure, that will work.And then there’s Tai and Van, who find themselves wondering whether they should be the arbiters of life and death. They drop a Queen of Hearts from a deck of playing cards on the ground to see if it “chooses” anyone. When a man picks it up, they follow him back to his apartment and Tai nearly makes moves to kill him, thinking that taking his life will give the cancer ridden Van more time.Van stops Tai from going that far, but the mere fact that the possibility was on the table is evidence of how much all this Wilderness woo-woo has affected their minds.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Meghan Markle Channels Lifestyle Mavens in ‘With Love, Meghan’ on Netflix

    The Duchess of Sussex has tried to channel the likes of Martha Stewart for years. Can “With Love, Meghan” get her there?“With Love, Meghan,” the new Netflix lifestyle series premiering next week, is a culmination of sorts for its creator and star, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. The show casts the princess as a perfectly groomed domestic goddess, cooking and entertaining for friends at home in coastal California, a role to which she has seemingly aspired for more than a decade.Meghan’s ambitions to be the “millennial Martha Stewart of Montecito,” as a recent New York Times guest essay put it, were delayed first by her courtship and marriage to Prince Harry, in 2018, and then by the couple’s public feud with the British royal family.In 2020, Harry and Meghan announced they would step back from royal duties, causing a flurry of palace gossip and recriminations. The couple spent the next few years cannily telling (and monetizing) their side of the story in a series of media ventures — a sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey; a six-episode Netflix docuseries, “Harry & Meghan”; and a best-selling memoir by Prince Harry, “Spare.”But all along, Meghan displayed flashes of her Ina Garten side. Remember when she showed Oprah her chicken coop? Or when a London bakery posted a photo of the handwritten thank-you note on personalized stationery she had sent to its staff?In a 15-second video on Instagram last year, Meghan finally announced her new kitchen and lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard. Details were scant, but a trademark application sought approval for a retail store, cookbooks and tableware, as well as jellies, jams, marmalades, fruit preserves and nut butters.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More