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    For a ‘Cobra Kai’ Star, There’s Nothing a Good Basket Won’t Fix

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhat I LoveFor a ‘Cobra Kai’ Star, There’s Nothing a Good Basket Won’t Fix‘I have a hard time saying no to a basket,’ said the actor Courtney Henggeler, explaining her approach to decorating her family’s Long Island rental.Courtney Henggeler’s Evolving Aesthetic13 PhotosView Slide Show ›Adam Macchia for The New York TimesFeb. 16, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ETSmart mothers know better than to bring their young children on trips to the grocery store. The little ones tend to lobby vigorously for things that, in the end, will benefit no one but the family dentist. And they probe, at high volume, matters that Mommy may not want to discuss in public.Courtney Henggeler can speak with some authority on this topic. Not long ago, she was wheeling her cart through the supermarket when her 4-year-old son, Oscar, loudly asked, “Why do we have so many houses?”“People who were listening must have thought we were very wealthy,” said Ms. Henggeler, 42, who co-stars in the hit Netflix series “Cobra Kai,” a spinoff of 1984’s “The Karate Kid.” (She also appeared on “The Big Bang Theory” as Sheldon’s twin sister, and had a recurring role in the first few seasons of “Mom.”) “It’s just that we move around. I film ‘Cobra Kai’ in Atlanta, and we were in a house for three months one year, and the next year we were in another house.”Oscar may be relieved to know that his family — until recently based in Los Angeles, also in a series of rentals — is zeroing in on a permanent address. A year or so ago, Ms. Henggeler, who grew up in the Poconos and in Seaford, Long Island, and her husband, Ross Kohn, a movie producer who was raised in Westchester, decided to move back to New York and settle there to be closer to Ms. Henggeler’s ailing mother.The plan: to rent for a few years and then build their dream house.Courtney Henggeler, 42, one of the stars of the Netflix series “Cobra Kai,” lives with her family in a rented house in Huntington, N.Y. “I love the doors, I love the moldings, I love the big windows,” she said.Credit…Adam Macchia for The New York TimesCourtney Henggeler, 42Occupation: ActorIn the pink: “It was very important to me to have a soft-pink bedroom for my daughter. Poor kid. She’s probably, like, ‘I just want a blue wall, Mom.’”“I’d been to a million weddings before I got married, so I kind of figured out what I wanted and didn’t want for my own wedding,” said Ms. Henggeler, who married Mr. Kohn in 2015 and had a second child, a daughter, Georgie, almost two years ago. “I felt the same about houses. I’ve lived in so many that I kind of knew what I wanted.”What she wanted from a rental “seemed kind of absurd, and my husband looked at me as if I had five heads. But I said, ‘We’ll find it.’”They found it — and more — in the form of a brand-new transitional colonial in Huntington, N.Y. It had four bedrooms. She would have settled for two bathrooms, but got four and a half. A light, bright kitchen with a six-burner stove? Check. Crown moldings? (In abundance.) Dark hardwood floors? (Be still, her heart.)“I never knew how important flooring was,” she said. “My previous homes had orange-y wood. I stay up at night looking at wood flooring on Instagram.”The backyard is smaller than she would have liked, as is the sole bathtub. Family baths, a favorite routine, are now on hold. But those deficiencies were offset by the basement exercise room (“I was like, ‘Who am I, with a gym in my house?’”); the radiant-heat floors in the bathroom (“My children are now, like, ‘I can’t live without heated floor, Mommy,’ and I’m, like, ‘Me, too,’”); the central vacuum system (“What a princess I’ve become; I can’t live without this now, either”); and the kitchen’s instant hot-water dispenser.The foyer is “actually my favorite little spot in the house,” she said.Credit…Adam Macchia for The New York TimesBut Ms. Henggeler was thrilled practically senseless by the foyer, which she has outfitted with a bench and a pillow. “It’s actually my favorite little spot in the house,” she said. “In the house we left in Los Angeles, you walked in and you were immediately in the living room, and that drove me bonkers.”But wait! There’s more: a mudroom. “I always wanted one,” she said. “I love what people do with them. A mudroom is a functional space, but you can have fun with it.”Her idea of fun, in this case, centers on baskets — on coat hooks, under the bench, holding gloves and scarves and grocery bags. “I have a hard time saying no to a basket,” she said. “It’s probably the thing I bought most of for this house. My attitude is: Let’s make it beautiful.”Mr. Kohn’s outerwear apparently falls well short of that standard. “Ross wants to hang his jacket in the mudroom, and I tell him to put it in the closet,” Ms. Henggeler said.Another example of their differing views on décor: He likes a modern look with clean lines, while she gravitates toward old houses and feminine touches. “I came into the relationship with a lot of sparkly things,” she said.Out of regard for her husband’s feelings, she has designated Georgie’s room her “girlie-girl outlet,” painting it a blush-rose and using it as a repository for treasures from her own childhood, among them a mirror, some books and framed pictures. Ms. Henggeler sums it up nicely: “The room looks like my apartment would look now if I hadn’t married a man who doesn’t want to live in a house with pink.”Ms. Henggeler painted the nursery for her daughter, Georgie, pink — her own favorite color.Credit…Adam Macchia for The New York TimesBut she understands the appeal of a different palette. She loves how the slate-gray walls in the dining room set off the collection of Jim Marshall rock-star photographs she inherited from her godfather.She says her aesthetic is evolving — though how exactly she isn’t quite sure, apart from moving in the direction of the California-chic look embodied by the designer Jenni Kayne.She is contemplating the acquisition of a chaise longue for the living room. It will take over the spot that was, until recently, filled by a mattress that she and Mr. Kohn bought for the first home they shared. “We didn’t want to take it to the curb until garbage-collection day, so we put it in here. But our kids loved jumping on it, and it stayed for another seven months,” Ms. Henggeler said.“At the moment,” she added, “I’m in the there’s-nothing-a-throw-blanket-won’t-fix phase of design.”For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @nytrealestate.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    For ‘Buffy’ Fans, Another Reckoning With the Show’s Creator

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyFor ‘Buffy’ Fans, Another Reckoning With the Show’s CreatorMany fans said they are trying to reconcile accusations of misogyny against Joss Whedon, the creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” with their love of a show that celebrated female empowerment.Joss Whedon, seen here at a premiere in 2018, has been accused of abusing actors who worked for him.Credit… Gabriel Olsen/WireImage via Getty ImagesFeb. 15, 2021Updated 4:37 p.m. ETThe Whedon Studies Association, a society of academics devoted to studying the works of Joss Whedon, is debating whether to change its name. Fans who grew up with his signature show, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and were planning to introduce it to their children are grappling with what to do.Some said they are regretting tattoos inspired by “Buffy” and other shows Mr. Whedon created.For years, fans of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” which aired on the WB and UPN from 1997 to 2003, have had to reconcile their adoration for a show about a teenage girl who slays monsters with the criticism that often swirled around her creator.Mr. Whedon’s early reputation as a feminist storyteller was tarnished after his ex-wife, the producer Kai Cole, accused him of cheating on her and lying about it. The actress Charisma Carpenter, a star of the “Buffy” spinoff “Angel,” hinted at a fan convention in 2009 that Mr. Whedon was not happy when she became pregnant.In July, Ray Fisher, an actor who starred in Mr. Whedon’s 2017 film “Justice League,” accused him of “gross” and “abusive” treatment of the cast and crew. Mr. Whedon has disputed some of Mr. Fisher’s accusations, and said his ex-wife’s 2017 account included “inaccuracies” and “misrepresentations.”On Wednesday, Ms. Carpenter released a statement in support of Mr. Fisher, in which she said Mr. Whedon harassed her while she was pregnant and fired her after she gave birth in 2003.“Joss Whedon abused his power on numerous occasions while working together on the sets of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel,” she said in the post, hashtagged #istandwithRayFisher. The post set off a new accounting for longtime fans of Mr. Whedon’s work, and some of the people who helped him create it.Over the past week, many of the actors who starred on “Buffy,” including Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played Buffy Summers, have expressed solidarity with Ms. Carpenter and distanced themselves from Mr. Whedon. The actress Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Buffy’s younger sister, Dawn, alleged on Instagram on Thursday that Mr. Whedon was not allowed to be alone with her.“I would like to validate what the women of ‘Buffy’ are saying and support them in telling their story,” Marti Noxon, one of the show’s producers and longtime writers, said on Twitter. Jose Molina, a writer who worked on Mr. Whedon’s show “Firefly,” called him “casually cruel.”A representative for Mr. Whedon declined to comment.Charisma Carpenter, seen here in 2019, played Cordelia on “Buffy” and “Angel.”Credit…Nina Prommer/EPA, via ShutterstockThrough “Buffy,” Mr. Whedon sparked a universe that inspired scholarly articles and books, countless online groups that still dissect plotlines and characters more than 17 years after the final episode aired, and legions of fans who connected deeply with a teenage girl forced to fight unimaginable horrors.“Many people came out and said that ‘Buffy’ saved their lives,” said Alyson Buckman, a professor at California State University, Sacramento, and member of the Whedon Studies Association, who surveyed fans of the show for an upcoming book. “It was incredibly meaningful for them. It taught them to stand up for themselves. It taught them that they could go on.”She added: “Is that all ruined by one man?”Welcome to the HellmouthIn March 1997, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” premiered on the WB, then a fledgling cable network, and was quickly praised as a smart and campy series about a teenage girl and her friends fighting the forces of evil.The show was full of clever metaphors — Buffy lived in a California town that sits on a hellmouth, a place where vampires and monsters converge and a sly comparison to the pains of adolescence. Writers like Ms. Noxon and Jane Espenson developed rich plotlines and provided the actors with snappy dialogue that fascinated linguists. The characters struggled with evil boyfriends, their own sexuality and the death of a parent in ways that fans found cathartic.“The show was really a lifeline for me at the time because I didn’t have community,” said Jen Malkowski, a film and media studies professor at Smith College, who identifies as queer and trans nonbinary and began watching the show in high school.“I was working with my sexuality, coming to terms with coming out,” said Professor Malkowski, who uses they and them pronouns. “Buffy was a huge source of comfort for me.”Mr. Whedon’s fame grew, and he went on to direct and write myriad other films and television series, including the wildly popular “Avengers” and one of its sequels, “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” In 2013, the human rights group Equality Now honored him as a champion of storytelling who fought for gender equality.“Buffy was such a powerful show not just because it was about girl power, but also because it was about women’s voices,” said Jodi Eichler-Levine, a professor at Lehigh University who described herself as “obsessed” with the show in graduate school.“Hearing just how profoundly the voices of women in the cast were ignored cuts deep,” she said.Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played Buffy Summers, said she was proud of the role, but does not want to be forever associated with Joss Whedon. Credit…WB‘The story is not just Joss Whedon’s’In pop culture and beyond, there’s a long history of fans working through how to separate their art from its creator or stars. And for years, many fans have had to compartmentalize their love for “Buffy” as more accusations swirled against Mr. Whedon and multiple viewings of the show revealed aspects of it that had not aged well.Nat Brehmer, a freelance writer in Apopka, Fla., described on Twitter how he thought of Mr. Whedon as “some kind of god” when he first watched the show in high school. Episodes like one about a student who feels so unseen by her classmates that she literally becomes invisible helped him cope with the anxieties he felt as a teenager.Over the years, Mr. Brehmer said he has had to contend with some troubling remnants of the show’s legacy, like its treatment of minority characters and its depiction of sexual assault.The latest controversy surrounding Mr. Whedon is a reminder of the danger of idolization, Mr. Brehmer said. But he said that if he has children, he will watch “Buffy” with them.“Buffy is still my favorite show of all time,” he said. “Probably, by and large, one of my favorite stories ever told.”“Buffy” fans know that the “story is not just Joss Whedon’s,” said Kristin Russo, a co-host on the podcast, “Buffering the Vampire Slayer.” She compared the loyalty of fans to the show to that of fans of Harry Potter, who have distanced themselves from J.K. Rowling and transphobic comments she has made, while still embracing the books.“It’s the fandom claiming it back,” Ms. Russo said. “I don’t think that anyone would think that Buffy Summers belongs to any one person.”Professor Malkowski said boycotting “Buffy” and other shows Mr. Whedon created would also obscure the legacy of the other writers, producers and actors who worked on those series.“I want to hold on to Marti Noxon and Jane Espenson and Charisma Carpenter,” they said. “To me, it’s more important to keep what’s of value than to cancel what has been revealed to be troubling.”But in case the new allegations compel networks and streaming services to stop playing old episodes of Mr. Whedon’s shows, Professor Malkowski is ready:“I will never let go of my Buffy DVDs.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Dwayne Johnson Finds Room to Grow in ‘Young Rock’

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyDwayne Johnson Finds Room to Grow in ‘Young Rock’The new NBC comedy, based on Johnson’s real life, chronicles him at three different ages on his journey to adulthood and stardom.From left, Dwayne Johnson at age 10, age 20 and in 2019. “Young Rock,” a new NBC sitcom, tracks three different periods in the actor’s life.Credit…via Dwayne Johnson (left, center); Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images (right) Feb. 15, 2021, 8:00 a.m. ETIt’s hard to imagine Dwayne Johnson as anything other than the gargantuan, musclebound star of the “Fast and Furious” and “Jumanji” movie franchises, TV shows like “Ballers” and the professional wrestling ring, where he first came to prominence as the Rock. But he was once a smaller — or, at least, younger — man.His history is now the basis for the new comedy “Young Rock,” which debuts Tuesday on NBC. This series checks in with Johnson at three stages of his life: as a preteen, still known by the nickname Dewey (played by Adrian Groulx); as an awkward teenager (Bradley Constant); and as a budding college football player (Uli Latukefu).“Young Rock” also features Stacey Leilua as Johnson’s real-life mother, Ata, and Joseph Lee Anderson as his famed father, the wrestling champion Rocky Johnson. Dwayne Johnson appears as himself in the series, which was created by Nahnatchka Khan and Jeff Chiang (both of “Fresh Off the Boat”).And while he’s rarely known for getting taken down, Johnson, 48, said in a recent video interview that the process of creating “Young Rock” was “so incredibly surreal” that it “knocked me on my butt.”Uli Latukefu plays Johnson as a college student.Credit…Mark Taylor/NBC“Unlike anything I’ve ever participated in, it required real specificity and an attention to detail,” he said. “And nuance, to find the comedy and make sure that some of these lessons that I learned a tough way would hopefully help audiences, too.”Johnson spoke further about mining his life stories for the material found in “Young Rock,” and how the show required him to re-evaluate himself and his father, who died in 2020. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.First of all, is there anyone in your life who still calls you Dewey?Yes, my mom calls me Dewey all the time. And unfortunately, she calls me that in public. I hated that name when I was young — hated it every time my parents would call me that in front of girls, teachers and my friends. And it stuck.How did you decide which stages of your life the series would focus on?It required a lot of hours of sitting down with Nahnatchka, just talking and sharing stories and then walking away, going back home, writing things down, meeting back again, going over more stories. Once we chopped up a lot of years, Nahnatchka and her team went back and they sifted through everything. And they came back with the concept of three timelines, at 10, 15 and 18, which were defining years of my life.Did you do anything to help resurface these old stories and generate the raw material?I poured myself a lot of tequilas and I was able to jog my memory. I would leave Nahnatchka these voice notes, after my second or third drink, and say, listen, you’re never going to believe this. But I’ll tell it to you anyway. And then we would talk the next day.Bradley Constant in “Young Rock.” Johnson said he spent time with the actors who played him “and let them know what I was like during that time.”Credit…Mark Taylor/NBCDid you want to be involved in casting the actors who play you on the show?Every single one. And I was able to spend some time with them, prior to shooting, and let them know what I was like during that time. What I thought my priorities were. The times, more important, that I fell on my ass and I had to get back up. That was surreal, in and of itself. The thing that really pulled at my cold, black heartstrings was finding the actors to play my mom, my dad and my grandmother, and spend time with them. As we’re having these conversations and they would start talking about what they knew of my mom and my grandmother and my dad [snaps fingers], within seconds I would well up.Did you ever consider a “PEN15”-style approach to the show where you’d play yourself at the different ages?We talked about everything creatively you could think of. Could I play all three characters? How could we do that? Would we pull in technology and see what we could accomplish there? One of the issues became time and trying to balance out my already very full plate of things that I had to do. One of the original pitches was that I would actually remain in the shadows — do what I would do, promotionally, but otherwise let this live on its own. Then we came back and realized, let’s have you in every episode, talking and reminiscing. This is probably a better way to do it.We see in “Young Rock” how with the wrestlers of your father’s era, their lives in the ring are glamorous and exciting, but their lives at home are more mundane, even a bit meager. Was that true to your experience growing up?Oh, yes, we are showing the truth of that generation, of the ’70s and ’80s. Those wrestling stars were adored and they were celebrated. They would wrestle in 5,000-seat arenas or in high-school gyms. And when they left, they always left in a Cadillac or a Lincoln. Always. Everyone. Wherever they would park, you would see a fleet of Caddies and Lincolns. Because that was working the gimmick. And it was important that fans saw them getting into an expensive car. But then when you go down the road, to where they lived, in many cases it was small apartments, like we did. And we would live paycheck to paycheck. I felt like there was value in showing that. This was the commitment that these men had to their business. This, in essence, put food on their table.Adrian Groulx, center, with Joseph Lee Anderson and Stacey Leilua, plays Johnson as a boy.Credit…Mark Taylor/NBCSome viewers have already had a glimpse into your awkward high-school years, courtesy of a famous photograph from that era that showed you wearing a turtleneck, a gold chain and a fanny pack. Will we learn the origin of the fanny pack in a future episode?The fanny pack will live a life, for sure. It’s very, very important. But we all went through that in high school to varying degrees. I was 14 when we left Hawaii and had to move to Nashville. And that’s where everyone thought I was an undercover cop because “21 Jump Street” was on at that time. And we left Nashville within three months and moved to Bethlehem, Pa., and I felt like who I was wasn’t good enough. I didn’t want to be Dwayne, I wanted to be Tomás. I thought that girls would think it was a cool name. They had to think that I had money, and I would steal these expensive clothes. I got arrested twice when I went to Bethlehem, for stealing — which is not in the pilot, either, but it’ll make its way in down the road.The show’s portrayal of your father is complicated because we see him first as a popular wrestler, and then later when his wrestling career is over and he’s working more quotidian jobs to make ends meet. Was it hard for you to think about him this way?When NBC said, “We’re in, let’s partner up [on ‘Young Rock’],” it was big news. I called home to my mom and dad and spoke to them both. A few days later, he passed away suddenly. But I believe that he would want that to be shown. He would want to offer that example to help other athletes transition out of their world, with maybe a little bit more grace than he did. He had a very hard time, and he had to find any job. He drove a truck, he did whatever he could do to make a buck. That’s a hard reality shift. My dad and I, we had a complicated relationship — it was very tough love. Let’s show the flaws, but when people aren’t here anymore, let’s show the good stuff, too.Has your mother seen the show yet?My mom was my “Young Rock” consigliere throughout. She felt we could showcase the tough [expletive] and the hard [expletive] because we got through it. That’s the lesson. Hopefully, people who are going through some hard [expletive], too, can see that there’s a way out. You can get on the other side of it.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    What’s on TV This Week: ‘In Cold Blood’ and ‘The Black Church’

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhat’s on TV This Week: ‘In Cold Blood’ and ‘The Black Church’Richard Brooks’s classic adaptation of Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” airs on TCM. And Henry Louis Gates Jr. looks at the history of African-American faith communities in a PBS documentary.Robert Blake, left, and Scott Wilson in “In Cold Blood.”Credit…Columbia PicturesFeb. 15, 2021, 1:00 a.m. ETBetween network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Feb. 15-21. Details and times are subject to change.MondayIN COLD BLOOD (1967) 8 p.m. on TCM. The “hard blue skies” that Truman Capote described as hovering over rural Kansas in his pioneering 1966 nonfiction book, “In Cold Blood,” are turned black and white in this celebrated film adaptation from Richard Brooks. The movie dramatizes the 1959 quadruple murder that Capote’s book made famous, in which two men, Perry Smith (played by Robert Blake) and Richard Hickock (Scott Wilson), killed four members of a wealthy family in Holcomb, Kan., in a botched home robbery. Brooks’s adaptation has an eerie realism; it was shot largely on location, including on the farm where the actual murders took place, and was made to have a documentary feel. It’s all set to an unsettling score by Quincy Jones. The sum of those parts, Bosley Crowther wrote in his 1967 review for The New York Times, is a movie that “sends shivers down the spine while moving the viewer to ponder.”THOR: RAGNAROK (2017) 6:15 p.m. on TNT. Marvel Studios enlisted Taika Waititi, the New Zealand filmmaker known for serving up offbeat humor in movies like “What We Do in the Shadows,” to breathe new life (and laughs) into its “Thor” franchise with “Thor: Ragnarok,” a blockbuster with a secret superpower: self-deprecation. Chris Hemsworth returns as the god of thunder, this time with a new villain to save the world from — Hela, the goddess of death, played by Cate Blanchett — and a cheekiness to go with his long blonde hair.TuesdayA scene from “The Black Church: This is Our Story, This is Our Song.”Credit…McGee MediaTHE BLACK CHURCH: THIS IS OUR STORY, THIS IS OUR SONG 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). Henry Louis Gates Jr. hosts this new two-part documentary about the role of Black religious spaces and communities as centers of faith, resilience and organization for generations. He interviews a range of figures including religious leaders like Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie and the newly minted senator Rev. Raphael Warnock; musicians like John Legend, Jennifer Hudson and Yolanda Adams; and other prominent voices including Oprah Winfrey and the philosopher Cornel West. Gates also explores the current place of African-American faith communities in the era of the Black Lives Matter and environmental justice movements. “The church gave people a sense of value, and of belonging, and of worthiness,” Winfrey says. “I don’t know how we could have survived as a people without it.”From left, Adrian Groulx, Joseph Lee Anderson and Stacey Leilua in “Young Rock.”Credit…Mark Taylor/NBCYOUNG ROCK 8 p.m. on NBC. The world has seen many versions of Dwayne Johnson over the years — Dwayne “the wrestler” Johnson, Dwayne “the ‘Fast and Furious’ star” Johnson and, of course, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson — so it’s fitting that three different actors play Johnson in this sitcom series based on his life. Dreamed up by Johnson and the “Fresh Off the Boat” creator Nahnatchka Khan, the show portrays Johnson during three periods of his childhood and young adulthood, telling a fictionalized version of his upbringing and mining comedy from the experiences that shaped him, which go well beyond hitting the Bowflex.WednesdayLINCOLN (2012) 8 p.m. on HBO. Abraham Lincoln’s birthday is this month. Pay homage to the birthday boy by revisiting Steven Spielberg’s epic portrait of the 16th president, with an Academy Award-winning lead performance from Daniel Day-Lewis. The screenplay, written by Tony Kushner, is built around two momentous events in Lincoln’s political life: the Gettysburg Address and his second Inaugural Address. Much of the plot is focused on Lincoln’s arduous efforts to get a bill passed in Congress. The result is “less a biopic than a political thriller,” A.O. Scott wrote in his review for The Times, “a civics lesson that is energetically staged and alive with moral energy.”ThursdayTHE WIDOWER 10 p.m. on NBC. More than a decade of reporting went into this new true-crime mini-series from the producers of “Dateline NBC.” The show looks at a murder case with a remarkably chilling premise: A Las Vegas man calls the police to report that his wife has been murdered in a home invasion, but the subsequent investigation reveals that three of the man’s former wives also died under mysterious circumstances. This naturally raises questions about his role in the deaths.FridayPatrice O’Neal performing at the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan. O’Neal, who died in 2011, is the subject of “Patrice O’Neal: Killing Is Easy,” a documentary on Comedy Central.Credit…G. Paul Burnett/The New York TimesPATRICE O’NEAL: KILLING IS EASY 10 p.m. on Comedy Central. The stand-up comic Patrice O’Neal was known for both his searing humor and for the respect he commanded from his comedy peers during his career, which ended with his death in 2011. This documentary, directed by Michael Bonfiglio (“Jerry Before Seinfeld”), looks at O’Neal’s life, humor and legacy. It includes interviews with Colin Quinn, Bill Burr, Kevin Hart and other comics who admired O’Neal.SaturdayLILIES OF THE FIELD (1963) 8 p.m. on TCM. This year’s movie awards season is just starting to ramp up, but it’s already certain to be remembered for decades to come as the Academy Awards and other shows try to honor movies released during a year when theaters were largely closed and studios had to shelve many of their biggest releases. In 1964, Sidney Poitier was a one-man awards-season history maker: He became the first African-American to win the Academy Award for best actor, for his performance in “Lilies of the Field.” The film stars Poitier as nomadic former G.I. who stumbles upon a group of Roman Catholic nuns living in the Arizona desert, and eventually helps them build a chapel.SundayTHE VACCINE: CONQUERING COVID 8 p.m. on Discovery. This special looks at the development of Covid-19 vaccines through interviews with people on several sides of that colossal challenge, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins, and scientists from Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer. It also looks at the experiences of some early trial volunteers.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Review: Beware the Text, and Other Tales From ‘Smithtown’

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyReview: Beware the Text, and Other Tales From ‘Smithtown’Four not-very-believable characters in a chain of monologues are rescued by a cast of exceptionally believable actors.Ann Harada in “Smithtown,” which takes the dangers of technology as its theme.Credit… via The Studios of Key WestFeb. 14, 2021SmithtownIt’s often said that great actors can make compelling drama just by reading the phone book. But should they? Do we really want the Yellow Pages aspiring to the status of Shakespeare?These dispiriting questions arose for me while watching “Smithtown,” a play by Drew Larimore made up of four linked monologues that contain nothing very original except what the cast brings to them. Michael Urie, Ann Harada, Colby Lewis and Constance Shulman give riveting performances in material so thin it barely demands a paper clip.The technology that binds us is in fact the theme. Phone books may be things of the past, but “Smithtown” treats modern communication platforms — Zoom, email, Facebook, text messaging, YouTube and others — as if they were strange new forces teeming with unheard-of dangers.The first monologue makes this shopworn theme explicit. Urie plays Ian A. Bernstein, a graduate student teaching a class called An Introduction to Ethics in Technology at a fictional college in a small Midwestern town that gives the play its title. At the class’s first meeting — or, rather, online session — Ian immediately veers from the syllabus to provide what he thinks will be a mind-blowing example of high-tech horror.Michael Urie plays a graduate student teaching a class in the play.Credit… via The Studios of Key WestBut the example is both too familiar and too grotesque to function as drama. Set your alarm for a spoiler alert because here comes the plot: Having been dropped by his girlfriend, Ian texts Melissa — “famous for being the No. 1 human doormat of the student body” — with demands for sexy photos. She provides them, Ian instantly ghosts her, the photos get disseminated and tragedy ensues.This is presented in an entirely upbeat, faux-professorial manner that makes everyone involved, especially Ian, look not only insensitive but also moronic. Or it would, if Urie were not so expert at pulling the thread of moral anxiety within the artificial character to animate his performance.The remaining three monologues — each, like the first, about 15 minutes long — connect to Ian’s in ways evidently intended to illuminate contrasts between real and virtual intimacy, between engagement and mere witness.In “Text Angel,” Ann Harada plays Bonnie, an excessively chipper former guidance counselor running a small communications business from her basement. Customers pay her to send their loved ones helpful text messages: some meant as validation, some as slaps of tough love. When the wrong kind of message goes to the wrong kind of person, Bonnie gets mixed up in Melissa’s story.Colby Lewis as a photographer in another of the monologues in “Smithtown.”Credit…via The Studios of Key WestLikewise, in “If You Were Here,” Lewis portrays a “groundbreaking” photographer currently working as the head of social outreach at the Smithtown Heritage Center. The YouTube video he’s making to promote local treasures (a renovated window, a settler’s sock) quickly devolves into a fatuous humblebrag about his connection to the tragedy: He took pictures of it. Art, he tells us, prioritizes documentation over intervention, lest one miss the beauty inherent in the victim’s struggle.By the time we get to the final monologue, the fog of condescension around these Midwestern nitwits is too thick to see through. And yet Shulman, playing Cindy, a bereaved woman welcoming new neighbors to her kitchen with feeble jokes and an explosion of lemon cookies, somehow produces visible, relatable emotions. The evidence of watery eyes and shaky hands is incontrovertible.The opportunity to see actors working at such a high level can be worth it regardless of the play but, again, is every play worthy of such actors? This one, a production of the Studios of Key West, is so slick and pandemic-ready in its minimal physical (and attentional) requirements that thespians everywhere will probably vie to star in it; they’ll smell hot content for their sizzle reels even when there’s no meat.Constance Shulman, playing a bereaved woman, somehow produces visible, relatable emotions.Credit… via The Studios of Key WestBut it’s not the job of actors to make a play sensible and meaningful; that responsibility falls on playwrights and directors. Stephen Kitsakos, the director of “Smithtown,” seems to have focused his energy on delivering a very neat, shiny package regardless of what’s in it. Larimore, too, seems interested mostly in the surface, bending his characters to the concept instead of the other way around.To be fair, Larimore does know how to write piquant, playable dialogue. Which may not be saying much; according to the great actor theory, so did Bell Telephone.SmithtownThrough Feb. 27; tskw.orgAdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ Turns 30

    ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ Turns 30Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins in “The Silence of the Lambs.”Orion PicturesIs it a horror movie? A psychological thriller? Do such distinctions even matter when it comes to a movie like “The Silence of the Lambs”? It was released on Valentine’s Day 1991, and all I know is that I’ve seen “Silence” more times than I can recall → More

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    ‘S.N.L.’ Imagines a Victory Lap After Trump’s Acquittal

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘S.N.L.’ Imagines a Victory Lap After Trump’s AcquittalThe opening sketch on “Saturday Night Live” presented satirical remarks from Republican allies like Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell.Regina King (with Kenan Thompson) hosted “Saturday Night Live” this week.Credit…NBCFeb. 14, 2021Within hours of the Senate’s vote to acquit former President Donald J. Trump on a charge of inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, “Saturday Night Live” was imagining how some of Trump’s Republican allies in the Senate might be celebrating in a parody episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”Alex Moffat played that Fox News host, who compared himself to a human White Claw and started his broadcast with what he called “a loose collection of scaremongering non sequiturs.” Among them, “Is AOC hiding in your house right now?” and “Pixar: Is it making our kids depressed or gay? Pick one.”The program’s first guest was Senator Lindsey Graham (Kate McKinnon), who said that it was “a great day for 30 percent of America.”In defense of Trump, McKinnon said, “Just because the rioters were yelling ‘Fight for Trump’ doesn’t mean they meant Donald Trump. Could’ve been some real Tiffany heads. Maybe even some Eric stans, I don’t know. But regardless, the trial is over and now we can move past this and focus on the serious issues. That’s locking up Hillary and freeing beautiful Britney Spears.”McKinnon added that she didn’t understand the contempt directed at Trump. “He is smart, he is nice, he’s in shape,” she said. “Last fall he died of Covid and didn’t even tell nobody.”Playing Senator Ted Cruz, Aidy Bryant discussed the relationship between Republican senators and Trump’s legal counsel. “Like any impartial juror,” she said, “we took it upon ourselves to meet with the defense lawyers, to give them some very simple advice: stop, and don’t.”Inside the Senate chamber, Mikey Day played Trump’s tongue-tied lawyer Bruce L. Castor Jr., who apologized as he misidentified himself as the lead prosecutor, the bailiff and a bridesmaid. Pete Davidson, who played his truculent fellow defense lawyer Michael van der Veen, said he was in a hurry to complete the proceedings because he had “already bought a nonrefundable train ticket back to Phillyvania, Pennsadelphia.”The final guest was the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell (Beck Bennett), who, despite denouncing Trump, said that his not guilty vote was justified “because everyone knows you cannot impeach a former president.”“That’s why we should have impeached him before, back when I said we couldn’t,” he said. “I think he’s guilty as hell, and the worst person I ever met and I hope every city, county and state locks his ass up.”Bennett then exhaled a long breath and declared, “God, that felt good. I’ve been holding that inside my neck for four years.”Asked what he would now do in the Senate, Bennett replied, “I plan to reach my hand across the aisle and then yank it back and slide it across my hair and then say, ‘Too slow.’”Fake Commercial of the WeekIf you can afford a trendy Peloton exercise bike but have no interest in the relentlessly upbeat motivational messages from its onscreen product, “S.N.L.” may have a product that’s more your speed. It’s the Pelotaunt, which in this advertisement is billed as “the only exercise bike that provides you with personalized, at-home negative reinforcement and relentless criticism.”Among its many modes of emotional manipulation are snotty disdain, insincere praise and avoidant attachment style. And if none of those settings gets you into shape, why not try a workout accompanied by the theme from “Curb Your Enthusiasm” or video of “an elderly woman who’s like 1,000 times better than you”?Timely Legal Assistance of the WeekWho among us has not required the intervention of a plastic surgeon after using an extremely powerful adhesive as a substitute for hair spray? It happened in real life to Tessica Brown, who became an unfortunate viral sensation when she pasted her pate with Gorilla Glue.Now, should any of us make the same mistake, we have the law firm of Denzel and Latrice Commode (Kenan Thompson and Regina King), who can’t fix our hair but may be able to help us win large cash settlements. As King explained, “Fact: Every day as many as one people fall victim to using Gorilla Glue in place of a beauty product. And they deserve compensation.” She added that, though the odds may be tough, these attorneys understand what they’re up against. “We know it’s going to be hard taking a gorilla to court and suing him over his glue,” she said.Weekend Update Jokes of the WeekOver at the Weekend Update desk, the anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che continued to riff on Trump’s impeachment acquittal.Jost started:Like so many other men living in Florida, Donald Trump has once again escaped from justice. This has to be the dumbest trial I’ve ever seen. Here’s how dumb it was: The jurors, who are deciding the case, were the ones attacked by defendant. The trial took place at the scene of the crime. And then right after the trial ended, one of the jurors who voted to acquit Trump ran out and said, “Someone’s got to prosecute this guy. He did it. This man belongs in jail.” What are you going to do? If you’re going to impeach the president for anything, don’t you think it’s sending a mob to kill the Vice President? I feel bad for Pence — 43 of his work friends were like, oh come on, Mike, they only tried to hang you. Stop being such a drama queen. I think it would be hilarious if Biden now sent rioters back into the Capitol. And he was like, What? You guys said it was fine.Che continued:During Donald Trump’s impeachment, House managers showed security footage of Capitol rioters violently attacking police. But here’s a little Black history lesson for you: Just because there’s video evidence doesn’t mean you’re going to get a conviction.Jost then added:Video evidence of the violence on January 6 showed that Senator Mitt Romney and Vice President Pence both had close calls with rioters. So let me get this straight: You’re a white supremacist mob and you go after these guys? The two whitest guys I could think of? They make me look like Ice-T.Most Valuable Player of the WeekNo one right now would seem to have it easier or better than Tom Brady, the NFL quarterback who won his record-setting seventh Super Bowl last weekend in his first season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, after leaving his longtime home with the New England Patriots.But, as portrayed by Bennett at the Weekend Update desk, Brady is a drunken, slurring, Vince Lombardi Trophy-tossing muddle who variously boasts of his successes and taunts his old Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick (“You hear that, Bill? You’re not my dad anymore!”) As Bennett explained in a moment of self-loathing, “My problem is nobody likes me. I don’t know what I did so wrong. All I did was go out and win the Super Bowl. I kept thinking, maybe I get one more trophy and people are going to like me. Nope. They don’t talk about the wins. They just talk about how I kiss my sons.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Chris Harrison to Step Away From ‘The Bachelor’ After ‘Harmful’ Comments

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyChris Harrison to Step Away From ‘The Bachelor’ After ‘Harmful’ CommentsThe reality television show’s longtime host will be absent for an unspecified amount of time. He has come under fire after making remarks he now acknowledges were dismissive of racism.“I invoked the term ‘woke police,’ which is unacceptable,” Chris Harrison, the host of “The Bachelor,” said on Instagram. “I am ashamed over how uninformed I was. I was so wrong.”Credit…Richard Shotwell/Invision, via Associated PressFeb. 13, 2021, 7:36 p.m. ETChris Harrison, the longtime host of “The Bachelor,” announced on Saturday that he would be “stepping aside for a period of time” from the flagship reality television show, which he helped develop into a national obsession, after coming under fire for making comments that he acknowledged were dismissive of racism.In an Instagram post, Mr. Harrison said he had made the decision after consulting with ABC and Warner Bros. and would also not participate in the “After the Final Rose Special.”Media representatives for ABC, which broadcasts the show, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not clear what exactly Mr. Harrison’s “stepping aside” would entail.The move by Mr. Harrison and the controversy surrounding his remarks are likely to send shock waves through “Bachelor” Nation and dampen a trailblazing season that features the first Black bachelor, Matt James.Before Mr. James, there had been only one other Black lead, Rachel L. Lindsay. In an interview on “Extra” with Ms. Lindsay this week, Mr. Harrison had sought to defend a current “Bachelor” contestant. That contestant has since apologized for what she said were racist “actions.”“I invoked the term ‘woke police,’ which is unacceptable,” Mr. Harrison wrote on Instagram, adding, using an abbreviation for Black and Indigenous people and people of color: “I am ashamed over how uninformed I was. I was so wrong. To the Black community, to the BIPOC community: I am so sorry. My words were harmful.”“This historic season of ‘The Bachelor’ should not be marred or overshadowed by my mistakes or diminished by my actions,” he continued, before announcing that he would step aside.The tangled situation that resulted in Mr. Harrison’s statement Saturday was ignited by his interview with Ms. Lindsay and involves Rachael Kirkconnell, a current contestant on the show whom many believe to be a front-runner.In recent weeks, Ms. Kirkconnell has faced scrutiny on social media platforms from users who have produced photos and other materials that purport to show her liking and participating in cultural appropriation and attending an “Old South” plantation-themed ball. Ms. Lindsay asked Mr. Harrison about the controversy surrounding Ms. Kirkconnell, and Mr. Harrison issued a staunch defense.He called for “grace” and assailed Ms. Kirkconnell’s critics as being “judge, jury, executioner.”“People are just tearing this girl’s life apart,” he said. “It’s just unbelievably alarming to watch this.”At one point in the interview, Mr. Harrison appeared to downplay the significance of a photo that purported to show Ms. Kirkconnell at the “Old South” antebellum-themed party, drawing pushback from Ms. Lindsay, who at 31 was cast as the first Black star of “The Bachelorette” in a season that aired in 2017.On Thursday, Mr. Harrison offered an initial apology on Instagram, saying he had caused harm “by wrongly speaking in a manner that perpetuates racism.”Then, on Friday in a podcast she co-hosts, Ms. Lindsay spoke out about the interview with Mr. Harrison. She said Mr. Harrison had apologized to her but said she was “having a really, really hard time” accepting his apology.“I can’t take it anymore,” she said, speaking broadly about her frustration with the franchise’s handling of race. “I’m contractually bound in some ways, but when it’s up — I am so — I can’t, I can’t do it anymore.”Ms. Kirkconnell also posted an apology on Instagram. While she did not directly confirm the veracity of the photos and other content posted online, she said her actions had been racist.“I’m here to say I was wrong,” she wrote in her post. “I was ignorant, but my ignorance was racist.”Mr. Harrison then offered his fuller apology on Saturday in the post in which he announced he was stepping away from the show for an unspecified amount of time.As the franchise has become somewhat more diverse, “The Bachelor” has also wrestled more awkwardly with race.In 2017, when Ms. Lindsay’s season as the first Black bachelorette aired, one contestant’s racist tweets were excavated; another called her a “girl from the hood.” She is from Dallas, where her father is a federal judge.In 2019, when contestants traveled to Singapore, they were unable to make sense of that city’s internationally famous food markets.In 2020, a contestant lost the prize of a cover of Cosmopolitan magazine when it was discovered she had modeled White Lives Matter merchandise.The franchise creates and recirculates a pantheon’s worth of former contestants, building dozens of brands each year that may become useful to the franchise or may be discarded.Sometimes past contestants re-enter the cluster of “Bachelor” shows (which include “Bachelor in Paradise,” a hookup-oriented bacchanal that brings together fan favorites and villains), but these careers often go on to exist just on social media, where people do sponsored content for toilet paper and start gyms.But in this case, in a rare show of solidarity, past contestants came together to speak up. For instance, the men of Season 16 of “The Bachelorette” came together to make a statement.Vocal online fans have included those in Reddit’s thebachelor channel, where hard-core followers of the show have blasted Mr. Harrison — and at least one popular post this week suggested boycotting the show entirely as viewers.Evan Nicole Brown and Choire Sicha contributed reporting.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More