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    in Television

    ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2, Episode 3 Recap: Forging Ahead

    Arondir is back, along with some other major characters not yet seen this season. And this installment asks: Is Mordor maybe an OK place to live?Amazon released the first three episodes of Season 2 of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” at once; read the recaps for Episode 1 here and Episode 2 here.Season 2, Episode 3: ‘The Eagle and the Scepter’One of the central themes in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” is the alliance. Given the inspiration the author reportedly drew from his personal experiences fighting in World War I — and given that World War II was raging during the years he was working on the books — it’s not too difficult to read into his story a strong endorsement of the idea that brave men and women of different backgrounds should come together to thwart a common enemy. Their cause then becomes a bond that holds, even after the battle is over.But because “The Rings of Power” is more of an origin story, it makes a related but distinct point to Tolkien’s, which is that alliances are never easy. Even if everyone can agree on what they oppose — armies of orcs, for example — that may not be enough for them to overcome their old grudges. If, say, the humans resent the elves, the elves distrust the humans and the dwarves would rather be left alone, that’s a big gap for these various factions to bridge before they can take up arms together.And that’s not even taking into account all the factions within factions: the rural humans who struggle to get along with the rich city-dwellers, the half-elves who feel disrespected by elfin aristocrats and so on.In the third episode of Season 2, the last of the main Season 1 characters who had yet to be seen this season finally reappear; these are the “Rings of Power” story lines in which the acrid aroma of racism and classism sours the air. They will come together some day, we know. But it will be a long, winding road.Here are four takeaways and observations from Episode 3:Numenor is for the birdsThe wealthy and sophisticated island kingdom of Numenor was one of the most stunningly opulent locations in Season 1 and the source of a lot of political intrigue that, frankly, did not get its full due in that season’s eight episodes. As soon as Numenor’s queen regent, Miriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), made the controversial decision to lead an expedition to the Southlands, her home became more or less an afterthought in the season until the finale, when she returned — blinded from battle — to find her father had died.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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    in Television

    Ofra Bikel, Filmmaker With a Focus on Criminal Justice, Dies at 94

    Her award-winning documentaries for PBS’s “Frontline” series shed light on serious flaws in several cases and helped lead to the release of 13 prisoners.Ofra Bikel, a crusading filmmaker for PBS’s “Frontline” investigative series whose documentaries about the criminal justice system in the United States exposed deep flaws in the convictions of 13 people, died on Aug. 11 at her home in Tel Aviv. She was 94.Her niece Tamar Ichilov confirmed the death. She left no immediate survivors.After making an eclectic mix of “Frontline” documentaries, including ones about the war in El Salvador, people over 75 who were beset with spiraling medical costs and the Solidarity movement in Poland, Ms. Bikel’s focus shifted mainly to criminal justice cases.“I hate injustice,” Ms. Bikel told The New York Times in 2005. “It just bugs me.”One case, in particular, consumed her for seven years.In 1990, she started looking into a case in Edenton, N.C., where seven people, including Bob and Betsy Kelly, a married couple who owned the Little Rascals Day Care Center, were charged with sexually abusing 29 children.Mr. Kelly was convicted and received 12 consecutive life sentences, but his conviction was overturned. His wife pleaded no contest after 30 months in jail. The other five defendants, including three of the Kellys’ employees, also spent long periods in prison before their releases.The case, which lacked physical and conclusive medical evidence, relied on testimony from many children who defense lawyers said had been manipulated by therapists.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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    in Television

    Serena Williams Reflects on Her Life and Legacy in a New Docuseries

    “In the Arena: Serena Williams,” an eight-part documentary on ESPN+, revisits the highs and lows of the star’s career and considers her impact on tennis and beyond.In March 2001, Serena Williams, then just 19, was booed mercilessly by the crowd during the tournament final of the Indian Wells Open in California. The jeering included racist slurs, and it was arguably the most terrifying and scarring thing that ever happened to Williams during her spectacular career.In “In the Arena: Serena Williams,” an eight-part documentary streaming on ESPN+ — the final episode premieres on Wednesday — the retired star looks back on how she was shaped by the experience.“Having to go through those scathing, nasty, awful things just because of the color of my skin opened a lot of doors for other people,” she said. “I have been able to provide a platform for Black girls and Black women to be proud of who they are.”I welcomed Williams’s newfound ease in talking so explicitly about race and her continued impact on women’s sports. One of the most visible athletes of all time, she has been the subject of countless interviews and biographies during her career, but she did not often seem eager to reveal much about her private life. This has changed in the past few years with projects like the HBO documentary “Being Serena” (2018), about her pregnancy and struggle to return to tennis, and her active posting on Instagram. She was also an executive producer of “King Richard,” the 2021, Oscar-winning biopic of her father, Richard Williams.But “In the Arena” reveals still more layers of its subject. Directed by Gotham Chopra, it features candid interviews with Williams and her relatives, friends and tennis contemporaries, including her sisters, Venus Williams and Isha Price; her fellow legend Roger Federer; and the former tennis star and current television commentator Mary Joe Fernández. Serena is also an executive producer.The series is a follow-up to “Man in the Arena: Tom Brady” (2021), which was also directed by Chopra and was produced by Brady’s 199 Productions. But tennis is far more solitary than a team sport like football. Spectators’ eyes are laser-focused on the players and their bodies, a reality that was originally made more fraught because of Williams’s race and class status in the predominately white world of tennis.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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    in Television

    Feel Good T.V. Is Great. But Lonely T.V. Gives Us What We Need.

    Dark comedies like “The Bear” and “Sunny,” provide a contrast to contemporary comedy’s relentlessly upbeat streak.Masa is a hikikomori — a shut-in or hermit of sorts — who has been holed up in his room for years. His dirty dishes are piled into towers. His mother is so worried about him that she calls his estranged father, Hiromasa, who offers for Masa to stay in his empty cabin on Lake Biwa, northeast of Kyoto. Masa will still be alone, but at least he will get a change of scenery.In the cabin, Masa retreats even further into his sullen isolation — until he meets Sho the trashbot. Sho is short and squat and looks like a glorified garbage can on wheels, complete with a claw arm to grab trash. He has been programmed to pick it up, but he is not very good at picking it out: Sho can’t quite tell why a KitKat wrapper goes in the garbage but Masa’s electronics don’t.Trained as an engineer, Masa suddenly has a passion project on his hands: He is determined to teach Sho the difference between trash and not-trash. When Hiromasa stops by to drop off groceries, he pauses at the doorstep, pleased by the scene unfolding behind the window: A gleeful Masa fist bumps Sho’s claw arm, pouring out a shot of whiskey to celebrate Sho’s finally figuring it out. The cabin floor is strewn with litter — remnants of countless trial runs — but Masa is grinning for the first time in years.This scene, from a recent episode of Apple TV+’s “Sunny,” is a rather pointed instance of something TV has been telling us for a while now: Mess brings meaning; people forge genuine connections in the midst of disorder. A spate of recent shows — “The Bear,” “Big Mood,” “Beef” and “This Is Going to Hurt” — pairs that somewhat saccharine sentiment with black comedy. Along with slightly older series like “Fleabag” and “I May Destroy You,” these shows stand in stark contrast to their relentlessly upbeat counterparts: “Ted Lasso,” “Abbott Elementary,” “The Good Place,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “Parks and Recreation,” to name a few. In a world that’s bleak enough already, feel-good, heartfelt comedy feels like more of a salve; earnest sitcoms seem to counteract the vitriol of the real world. But the dark comedies, by their very nature, feel truer to life than their more wholesome peers. Rather than building worlds from novel, even quirky premises — an American football coach dispatched to lead an English soccer team, philosophy lessons set in an off-kilter heaven, musical theater in an exuberant precinct — these new shows settle into grittier worlds. Dark comedies accomplish what classic sitcoms like “All in the Family,” “Good Times,” “Maude” and “Roc” did: They plumb humor from everyday tragicomedy.Sometimes the subject of a dramedy leads to category confusion. “The Bear” has spawned a debate over whether it is, in fact, a comedy at all, because it deals so often with such heavy themes: the punishing atmosphere of restaurant kitchens, family dysfunction, alcoholism, addiction, trauma. The dramedy follows Carmen Berzatto, known as Carmy, in the aftermath of his older brother Michael’s suicide. Carmy interrupts his prestigious culinary career to come home to Chicago and run the family’s Italian-beef sandwich shop, inherited from Michael. Under Carmy and his sous chef, Sydney, the original no-frills sandwich shop evolves into a high-end restaurant, hungry for a Michelin star. “The Bear” is at its best in episodes like the critically acclaimed “Fishes,” bursting with the sheer chaos of the Berzatto family. In the show’s third, most recent season, the episode “Ice Chips” opens on Carmy’s sister, Natalie Berzatto, who goes by Sugar, sweating on a Chicago highway, en route to the hospital. She is in bumper-to-bumper traffic, and she is going into labor. Sugar has called every person she can think of, and no one is picking up. She grits her teeth and, as a last resort, calls her mother.Donna Berzatto is an alcoholic with mood swings and a fiery temper — she drove a car through the wall of the Berzatto family home at Christmas in “Fishes.” And right now, she is getting on Sugar’s last nerve. Donna insists that Sugar use a specific breathing technique (“hee, hee!”) and scares her off of delivering without drugs. But as the episode progresses, the “hee, hee!” starts to help, and when Donna suggests that ice chips might be soothing, something between mother and daughter starts to soften.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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    Remember ‘Severance’ and ‘Stranger Things’? TV Is Making Us Wait.

    Remember “Severance”? Remember “Stranger Things”? Today’s leisurely TV schedules are taxing memories and changing the experience.Time moves slowly in Middle-earth. Ages last for millenniums. Elves are immortal. Villains menace the land, are defeated, then are nearly forgotten before they re-emerge eons later.By this measure, it has been a blink of an eye since we last saw “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” on Amazon Prime Video. But in terms of our brief mortal lives and the traditional calendar of TV, it has been a while. Galadriel and company will return for Season 2 on Thursday, nearly two years to the day since Season 1 began in 2022.This is the Ent-like pace at which TV moves these days. The “Game of Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragon” took nearly as long to come back for its second outing. “Severance,” likewise a member of the debut class of ’22, will return in January, almost three years since we last saw it. The teen drama “Euphoria,” whose second season began in January 2022, will start shooting a third season … sometime in 2025. By the time it airs, one assumes its characters will be eligible for Social Security.More and more, rejoining a favorite series is like trying to remember the details of high school trigonometry. Which hobbit did what to whom? What did they do all day in that “Severance” office again? Was “Stranger Things” set in the 1980s, or was it actually made then?From left, the director Shawn Levy with the actors Noah Schnapp and Finn Wolfhard during production of “Stranger Things,” whose episodes are sometimes movie length now.Tina Rowden/Netflix, via Associated PressThere are, of course, different reasons for shows to take their time returning. We had a pandemic. There were labor strikes in Hollywood. Streaming platforms have been retrenching. Individual shows can have creative or staffing issues. Ambitious productions take longer.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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    Michael Crichton’s Estate Calls New Show an Unauthorized ‘ER’ Remake in Lawsuit

    The best-selling author’s estate has filed suit over “The Pitt,” an upcoming series, claiming that it is an unauthorized reboot of the hit hospital drama.The estate of Michael Crichton filed suit against Warner Bros. Television on Tuesday, claiming that its upcoming Max series, “The Pitt,” is an unauthorized “ER” reboot that fails to credit him and compensate his heirs.The suit accused Warner Bros. and R. Scott Gemmill, the showrunner of “The Pitt,” of breaching a contract that requires Crichton’s consent for any remakes of the hit hospital drama. The estate also sued John Wells, an executive producer, and Noah Wyle, set to star and serve as an executive producer.“The lawsuit filed by the Crichton Estate is baseless,” Warner Bros. Television said in an emailed statement, calling “The Pitt” a “new and original show.” The company said it would “vigorously defend against these meritless claims.”The complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, claims that in 2020, Warner Bros., Gemmill, Wells and Wyle began developing a reboot of the show without informing Sherri Crichton, the author’s widow and the guardian of his estate. Gemmill and Wells were executive producers on “ER,” and Wyle was a star of that show.When they told her about the project, nearly two years into development, Crichton’s estate was prepared to approve a reboot based on the condition that he would be credited as a creator, in addition to a set of financial terms. But Warner Bros. later walked back on many of its promises, the lawsuit said.After negotiating for nearly a year, the parties did not reach an agreement, according to the suit. But Warner Bros. “simply moved the show from Chicago to Pittsburgh, rebranded it ‘The Pitt’ and has plowed ahead without any attribution or compensation for Crichton and his heirs,” the complaint said.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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    in Theater

    Is This the Edinburgh Fringe, or a Wellness Convention?

    Grief narratives were in vogue, and psychological maladies, too, at the annual Scottish arts showcase.As I made my way to Scotland for this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the three-week arts showcase that finished on Monday, I felt a little apprehensive. A conspicuous number of shows were themed around psychological maladies. These included plays about grief, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and gambling addiction. I had thought I was going to a festival, but this sounded more like a wellness convention.Theater geared toward raising awareness can often be underwhelming, because the message gets in the way of a good time. But “300 Paintings,” by the Australian performer Sam Kissajukian, was a pleasing exception. Kissajukian, who has bipolar disorder, quit comedy a couple of years ago, when he was in his mid-30s, to become an artist — a frying-pan-to-fire trajectory if ever there was one. In this one-man show, he recounts, with the help of a slide show, a six-month manic streak during which he fast-tracked his way onto the art circuit through prolific productivity and business chutzpah: the delusional confidence of the unwell. Then he crashed, sought psychiatric help and got diagnosed. Kissajukian’s monologue is a whimsical delight, and the paintings aren’t bad either.Sam Kissajukian in “300 Paintings.”Tal GoldhamerGrief narratives have been much in vogue onstage since the success of “Fleabag,” which was performed at the Fringe in 2013. “So Young,” a sentimental comedy written by the Scottish playwright Douglas Maxwell, was one of several shows about bereavement at this year’s festival. Set in Glasgow, it centers on the conflict between two grieving people: a middle-aged widower who has just found a new, much younger girlfriend; and his dead wife’s best friend, who is affronted at how quickly he has moved on. The play foregrounds an often overlooked truth: that grief, though primarily personal, has an inherently social dimension.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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    In ‘Only Murders in the Building,’ Michael Cyril Creighton Is Above Suspicion

    For years, Michael Cyril Creighton hoped one of his small TV parts would evolve into something more. With “Only Murders,” it finally happened.On a rainy morning in early August, the actor Michael Cyril Creighton sat in a dog friendly cafe on the outskirts of Astoria, Queens. With him was Sharon, his seven-year-old rescue, who is part Chihuahua, part Jack Russell terrier, with a soupçon of haunted doll. Another dog scampered over to their table. Sharon growled low in her throat and bared her teeth.“She has a troubled past,” Creighton said, soothing her. “But she’s great.”Creighton — bespectacled, bearded, with a cuddlesome physique — is more reliably sociable. During a two-hour conversation that began with savory scones and included a damp walk at a nearby sculpture park, he growled not once, not even when interrupted, frequently, by fans of his work on “Only Murders in the Building.”In “Only Murders,” the Hulu series about occasional homicides in a luxury co-op on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Creighton, 45, plays Howard, a librarian and hobbyist yodeler with an impressive sweater game. A gossip and a noodge, keen to be accepted by the building’s amateur detectives, a trio played by Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short, Howard is also capable of surprising vulnerability. So is Creighton, who combines a mordant wit and a clown’s broad instincts with deep feeling.A recurring actor in the show’s first two seasons, Creighton was made a series regular in its third. In Season 4, which premiered on Tuesday, his co-stars include a pig who urinated on his feet between takes.“Look, it’s ridiculous what we’ve got going on in his world,” John Hoffman, the “Only Murders” showrunner said in an interview. “I feel like I can throw him anything and he’ll sort it out. I can’t believe I got so lucky to find him.”In Season 4, Creighton’s character, Howard, owner of many (many) cats, adopts a retired working dog and starts his own podcast, called “Animals and Their Jobs.”Patrick Harbron/DisneyWe 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