Eliana Willis

Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. We’re all stuck at home at the moment, so here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.‘You Rig Some, You Lose Some’Stephen Colbert opened “The Late Show” with a somber, emotional speech on Thursday, accusing President Trump of trying to “poison American democracy” with his lies about the vote count and evidence-free claims that the election was being stolen.“By the way, if Donald Trump is right — if Joe Biden did pull the strings behind the scenes in Republican states like Arizona and Georgia while coordinating with Democratic states like Pennsylvania and Nevada and Wisconsin and Michigan and throwing in the red herring of letting the Republicans keep the Senate and gain a few seats in the House while just barely removing Donald Trump — wow!” Colbert said. “I mean, kudos to that level of interstate coordination. I mean, anyone who could accomplish that many things at once right now really would be the president we need during a global pandemic.”[embedded content]“The Trump folks still insist they have a chance, which may be true, but even Republican-friendly estimates say Trump has a steep uphill battle to close the gap. And the only thing more challenging than a steep uphill battle for Donald Trump would be a steep downhill waddle.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“The race being so close in Georgia was a big surprise, but Pennsylvania — the reason Joe Biden is strong in Pennsylvania, a state that voted Republican last time, is because he’s from there and they know him. It’s the same reason Trump lost New York.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“At 9:12 this morning the soon-to-be-former president tweeted, ‘Stop the count!’ And I guess nobody listened, because half an hour later he retweeted his own tweet: ‘Stop the count! Why are they still counting? I tweeted twice to stop.’ He also wrote, ‘Stop the fraud,’ which should have been a note to self.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Here’s a compromise: How about they count the votes and then they stop counting the votes, like the old days.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“I’m not saying Trump is in trouble, but he was just sent straight to voice mail by the My Pillow guy.” — JIMMY FALLON“Yep, nothing is definite, but the outcome feels pretty inevitable right now. Vladimir Putin is like, ‘Oh well, you rig some, you lose some.’” — JIMMY FALLON“He’s also been urging his followers to take to the streets, and they’re showing up like coronavirus at a White House Rose Garden event.” — TREVOR NOAH“I mean, seriously, I can’t believe we were all terrified that Trump supporters would coordinate a civil war and yet these guys can’t even agree on a slogan to shout in the streets.” — TREVOR NOAHThe Punchiest Punchlines (Suing America Edition)“When Hillary lost, she disappeared into the woods, but Trump starts losing, he’s dragging voters one by one onto the witness stand, although knowing Trump, he’s probably just hustling for a big settlement. [as Trump:] ‘I’m suing because I should be president, that’s why I’m here — but for 500 grand we can forget this whole thing ever happened. Three hundred thousand. Two hundred and fifty, my final offer. Fifty thousand. I’ll pay you, but only $20. Art of the deal.’” — TREVOR NOAH“The Trump campaign filed lawsuits in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania. And you know he’s serious because he sent his best lawyer — who was duped by Borat into almost showing his penis on camera — to Pennsylvania to handle this.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“And let the lawsuits begin. I really cannot think of a more fitting ending to this presidency than him suing America.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“You know you’re in trouble when your master plan starts with ‘Get me Rudy Giuliani on the phone.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Dude, you’re behind in Michigan. I’m worried you’re so confident because you think this is golf rules: ‘[as Trump] Just saw the numbers out of New York and Massachusetts. Very encouraging; way below par.’” — SETH MEYERS“Of course he’s suing. I get the feeling when Trump didn’t get the Christmas gift he wanted as a kid he was like, ‘Better lawyer up, Nana.’” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth Watching“The Tonight Show” invited audience members to share their special talents, including one young woman’s impersonations of celebrities stubbing their toes.Also, Check This OutTake a break from the real world this weekend with nine new essay collections, novels and other enthralling reads. More

This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here.Bobby Ball had a look that fit his slapstick humor. He was a slightly stocky 5-foot-3, with a head of dark, bushy hair, a similarly impressive mustache, a gaptoothed grin and a habit of snapping his red suspenders. His signature line, addressed to his comedy partner, Tommy Cannon, was “Rock on, Tommy!” The two were among Britain’s biggest television stars in the 1980s.Mr. Ball died on Oct. 28 at a hospital in London. He was 76. His manager, Phil Duke, who confirmed the death, said Mr. Ball had been admitted to the hospital because of breathing problems and tested positive for Covid-19.“Cannon & Ball,” which ran from 1979 to 1988, drew as many as 20 million viewers on a Saturday night. The show alternated between goofy comedy bits — about things like unpredictably reclining airline seats, obsessive-compulsive bartenders and a “West Side Story” gang encounter involving a very old man — and earnest musical numbers.Between skits, Mr. Ball and Mr. Cannon would put on tuxedos and sincerely sing well-known songs, often romantic ballads, like “Send In the Clowns” or “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before.”Toward the end of the show’s run, Mr. Ball, unhappy about his bad habits (drinking, womanizing and a propensity toward violence, the press said), turned to religion. He wrote “Christianity for Beginners” and began teaching vicars how to incorporate humor into their sermons.Robert Harper was born on Jan. 28, 1944, in Oldham, England, a manufacturing town near Manchester. Although he showed some interest in show business in his youth, he took a traditional job after high school: welder at a local factory.But in his spare time, he sang at cabarets around northern England. When a new welder, Thomas Derbyshire, joined the company, the two became friends. Soon they were a singing duo, calling themselves Bobby and Stevie Rhythm, then the Sherrell Brothers, then the Harper Brothers. Later they changed their surnames and became Cannon and Ball.The duo once said that they decided to expand their act to include jokes because comics were being paid three pounds per hour (more than $6 back then) more than singers.After their series ended, the two returned to television as shopping mall security guards on the sitcom “Plaza Patrol” (1991), but the show lasted only six episodes. Mr. Ball continued to act, mostly on television, evolving into grandfather and father-in-law roles.He was a regular on “Mount Pleasant” (2011-17), a family comedy, and did three episodes of “Last of the Summer Wine” (1973-2010), the long-running BBC series about retired men in Yorkshire.Mr. Ball’s last screen appearances — both in 2019 — were in “The Cockfields,” a mini-series about a family birthday celebration on the Isle of Wight, and “Not Going Out,” a series on which he had a recurring role as the feckless father of the star (Lee Mack).He and Mr. Cannon also continued to work together onstage. They played Las Vegas as recently as 2018.Mr. Ball and Joan Lynn married in 1964 and divorced in 1970. His survivors include his second wife, Yvonne Nugent, whom he married in 1974; two sons, Robert Harper Jr. and Darren Harper, now a comedy team, from his first marriage; and a daughter, Joanne Ball. According to The Oldham Times, his hometown newspaper, there were also 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.He didn’t plan to retire. “If no promoters booked me, I’d be out there busking,” Mr. Ball told The Mirror in 2015, referring to British sidewalk performers who sing or dance for spare change.Entertaining people had been an honor, he said, adding, “That’s all I want written on my gravestone — ‘He gave us a laugh.’” More

Season 4, Episode 7: ‘Lay Away’What if Michael Corleone hadn’t been up for the job?That’s the question that hangs over “The Godfather” after Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), the don of the Corleone crime family, dies of a heart attack and Michael (Al Pacino) takes the helm. At that point in the film, there’s ample evidence that Michael is a shrewd and coolheaded decision maker, but he’s also the youngest of Vito’s sons and the most removed from the business, having served as a Marine in World War II and started a life with a woman who wants nothing to do with it. He is thrown into a feud among the “Five Families” of New York and coolly arranges a coordinated series of killings during a baptism.“Fargo” wonders what might have happened if Michael Corleone had been every bit as vulnerable as his adversaries might have assumed. Because the Faddas don’t have a Michael. The Faddas have a Sonny (James Caan) in Gaetano, a macho thug who acts impulsively and violently to any perceived threat, and they have a Fredo (John Cazale) in Josto, whose weakness manifests itself as lethal ineptitude. Josto is the capo, but he’s incapable of confronting problems directly, leading to a lot of behind-the-scenes machinations that wind up blowing up in his face. He’s like a would-be puppet master who keeps tangling up the strings.There haven’t been many deep connections between this season of “Fargo” and the Coens’ film, beyond maybe the “Minnesota nice” qualities of Oraetta Mayflower, who’s a conspicuous out-of-towner in its Kansas City setting. But Josto embodies a common Coen type: the criminal dilettante who is undone by his own pettiness and amateurism. He and Gaetano are both sources of senseless violence, all of which has softened the Faddas’ edge over the Cannons, who are outmanned and at a severe cultural disadvantage. And this week, Josto’s mistakes continued to pile up.In this mostly lively episode, Josto and Loy are frequently juxtaposed for their leadership styles and their decision-making, which usually result in forcing Loy to try to sort through Josto’s missteps. For example, Josto’s plan to have one of his henchmen execute Loy’s son Satchel predictably failed, but his solution is to dig a deeper hole for himself. He tells Loy the boy is dead, pinning the blame on Gaetano’s right hand, Constant Calamita, in the hope that the Cannons will take on the ugly business of killing Calamita themselves. Never mind that the lie about Satchel’s death will almost certainly result in pushing Loy to kill the Italian boy they adopted as collateral in the original deal between the two families. Josto’s true war is with his brother, and he wants the Cannons to fight it for him.But Loy is a pragmatist. In fact, the only time he flashes violent here is in defense of his own pragmatism, when Leon suggests killing Gaetano and going to war with the Faddas. He seems to believe that Satchel is dead, but he can’t bring himself to strangle the boy’s Italian counterpart in the bathroom, and he sees some value in simply letting Gaetano go free, sensing that the brute will be more inclined to attack Josto than him. He also offers Swanee and Zelmare two tickets to Philly, which settles their beef over the heist nonviolently and neutralizes yet another threat against the Cannons.Yet there are limits to Loy’s power and success that are out of his control. One small, crucial moment in the episode is when Loy encounters the Diners’ Club billboard on the side of a building. He had an idea that would have not only made him extravagantly wealthy but also given him access to legitimate power, a safe exit from the volatility of the alternate economy. That idea was plucked by white bankers of much higher cultural standing, but much more limited imagination. He can make all the right decisions, but there’s a hard ceiling on how far he can go.“They can’t rise to our level, so they’ve got to drag us down to theirs,” Loy grouses to Odis about the Faddas. “If I get in the dirt like them, it means they were right the whole time.” In an episode that sets Loy and Josto up for comparison, there can be no doubt that Loy is the craftier of the two, with good instincts and a fuller understanding of what power he does and does not have. But that billboard is a reminder that he may be doomed to fail no matter what he does. The Faddas may fumble their way to legitimacy one day. The game is rigged against the Cannons.3 Cent StampsDidn’t catch any Coen references here, though the image of Gaetano, the bloodied brute tied to the chair is reminiscent of the unnamed screaming fat man in “Miller’s Crossing,” who had also been kidnapped and beaten.It seemed as if Oraetta had a good enough look at the “concerned citizen” letter to know its source, but she bakes up a batch of deadly macaroons for Dr. Harvard regardless. Perhaps she thinks he’s too suspicious of her to be trusted long term. (Again, she’s still on the periphery of the main story, along with Ethelrida, but perhaps they’ll get pulled in soon.)Odis cannot keep from getting kicked around by the Faddas, the Cannons and Deafy, all of whom have some form of leverage over him. But at this point, the character is defined too much by his tics and his compromised situation. He’s not compelling enough as a person.Loy’s experiences with racism give him perspective on the grifter as the American criminal type. “He don’t rob you so much as trick you into robbing yourself,” he says. “Because in America, people want to believe. They got that dream.” When the American dream is denied to you, you can perhaps see the scam more clearly. More

Nikki McKibbin, a singer-songwriter from Texas best known for her third-place finish on the inaugural season of “American Idol,” died on Sunday. She was 42.Ms. McKibbin’s death was confirmed by her husband, Craig Sadler, who said on Facebook that she was taken off life support early Sunday morning, four days after she experienced complications from a brain aneurysm. Her son Tristen Langley said she died in Arlington, Texas.“She was so loved that I know thousands of you will be grieving with us,” Mr. Sadler wrote.Ms. McKibbin rose to national fame in 2002 as a contestant on “American Idol,” the Fox reality show in which singers competed for a record deal. Appearing with an unabashedly punk style, complete with a shock of dyed red hair, she was praised for her soulful covers, including “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler, “Black Velvet” by Alannah Myles and “Piece of My Heart,” which Janis Joplin made famous with Big Brother and the Holding Company.She finished third on the show, behind Kelly Clarkson, the winner, and Justin Guarini.“Nikki McKibbin was an incredible talent and we are deeply saddened by the news of her passing,” a spokeswoman for “American Idol” said in a statement. “She was part of our ‘American Idol’ family and will be truly missed. Our hearts and prayers go out to her family and friends during this difficult time.”A longtime fan of Stevie Nicks, Ms. McKibbin covered her song “Edge of Seventeen” in one of her final performances on the show. During Ms. McKibbin’s time on “American Idol,” Ms. Nicks sent her flowers and a card that read, “You are the Gypsy that I was,” Mr. Guarini said on Instagram.The gesture put Ms. McKibbin “on cloud nine and the joy and excitement that radiated from her was infectious,” he said.Mr. Guarini said Ms. McKibbin “was a fiery, funny lady who could sing the Hell out of a rock song with the same kind of ease and command she lovingly used to cut you with her twangy Southern wit.”Ryan Seacrest, the longtime “American Idol” host, wrote on Twitter that Ms. McKibbin “was a superstar the moment she walked into auditions.”“She set the bar high with her talent and memorable stage presence,” he said. “It was an honor to watch her grow and inspire millions of people.”During Ms. McKibbin’s time on “American Idol,” her son Tristen, who was 4, handed her a rose after a performance. In 2014, Ms. McKibbin accompanied her son, then 15, when he auditioned for the show. As he sang a cover of Sublime’s “Santeria,” she mouthed the words.“We just want the world to know, out of all of the wonderful things she was, the most important thing to us is that she was an extraordinary wife, the most amazing mother a son could ever ask for, and an angel of a grandmother,” Mr. Langley said on Sunday.Complete information about Ms. McKibbin’s survivors was not immediately available on Sunday.After “American Idol,” Ms. McKibbin signed a record deal with RCA Records, a division of Sony Music, but clashed with the label when she refused to record a country album, Variety reported. Her debut album, “Unleashed,” was released in 2007 by the Chenoa Music label.Ms. McKibbin’s struggles with substance abuse, including alcohol and cocaine, were chronicled on “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew” and “Sober House,” both on VH1, Variety reported. She also appeared on “Fear Factor” on NBC, and “Battle of the Network Reality Stars” on Bravo.Mr. Sadler said on Facebook that his wife was taken off life support in the early hours on Sunday and her organs were donated. Before the operation began, he said, they played “Landslide,” one of Ms. Nicks’s signature songs with Fleetwood Mac, one last time. More

Season 2, Episode 1, ‘The Marshal’Almost a year ago, the “Star Wars” spinoff series “The Mandalorian” debuted on Disney+ with a first episode that had been kept mostly under wraps — unseen by the critics and largely unspoiled by advertising. That secrecy preserved what turned out to be a wonderful surprise: the introduction a fun new character, called “the Child” on the show but immediately dubbed “Baby Yoda” by the fans. This tiny, adorable, superpowered creature became TV’s breakout star last fall, raising the question of what Jon Favreau, the creator of “The Mandalorian,” might possibly spring on the audience in the second season.Well, it turns out there’s no equivalent to a toddler-sized Yoda in the Season 2 premiere. But how about a full-sized Timothy Olyphant?Olyphant plays Cobb Vanth, the title character in this season’s debut episode, “The Marshal.” The show’s hero, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) — the Mandalorian himself — meets Cobb when he rides into the Tatooine mining community of Mos Pelgo in search of another member of the Mandalorian order of warriors and bounty hunters. It tuns out that our Mando has been misinformed. There are none of his kind living in Mos Pelgo, only a loping lawman who got hired to protect a town partly because he happened to buy some old Mandalorian armor off some Jawas.It’s hard to overstate how delightful it is when Olyphant first walks onto the screen as Vanth. Even under a Mandalorian helmet, the actor’s sun-baked California drawl is instantly recognizable. He also gives himself away by the way he stands, with one hip thrust sideways, skinny legs leaning at a steep angle, arms afloat at his sides … as though he’s ready at a moment’s notice to dive to the ground while firing a blaster. Even in the “Star Wars” universe, the man who played Seth Bullock and Raylan Givens looks like … well, like a marshal.The first season of “The Mandalorian” relied a lot on guest stars like Olyphant, who usually weren’t announced to the press ahead of time. (Favreau and Disney do like their little surprises.) Building the Season 2 premiere around a team up between the Mandalorian and the Marshal is a reassuring sign that this show probably won’t move too far away from what worked last year.Season 1 built to a satisfyingly epic showdown, featuring most of the series’s major characters. But much of the appeal of “The Mandalorian” has come from its old-fashioned episodic structure. Nearly every chapter so far has followed the hero and the Child on a new adventure in a new location. So while “The Marshal” picks up where last season’s finale left off — with Mando accepting the assignment to reunite the Child with his own people — the story immediately reverts to the task-oriented plotting that made the first season such a joy.The length of “The Marshal” is somewhat worrisome. Season 1 episodes of “The Mandalorian” typically clocked in at between 30 to 40 minutes. The Season 2 premiere runs 54 minutes, and I can’t say every second is necessary. The bulk of this chapter has to do with Vanth and Djarin working together with a cadre of Tusken Raiders to save their region from a Krayt dragon: a kind of giant underground worm-thing that eats living creatures and vomits up torrents of venom. The climactic action sequence features two steely men of action zipping around in Mandalorian jet-packs. It’s nifty to look at, but it takes a long time to set up a fairly routine man-vs.-monster shootout.Still, there are plenty of highlights scattered throughout this hour. Favreau is credited as both the writer and director, and he sets the right tone from the start with a good, pulpy opening sequence. When the Mandalorian and the Child visit a shady character named Gor Koresh (John Leguizamo) at an underground ax fight, Favreau lingers over the grubby details of a crumbling neighborhood with graffitied walls and an off-the-books club filled with creepy aliens. The scene pays off well, too, with the Child zipping up into his little floating egg while Mando clobbers his way through every thug in the room.Once he’s back on Tatooine, the Mandalorian reunites with Season 1’s hilariously energetic Mos Eisley spaceport manager, Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris), who once again coos over the Child and asks if she can have him. (When her offer is rejected, she tells Mando to let her know “if this thing ever divides or buds.”) And then Din is off to Mos Pelgo, mounted on a speeder-bike that rides steadily over the sand dunes … like a horse crossing Monument Valley in old John Ford western.So sure, “The Marshal” could be a little more taut. But there’s an assuredness to what Favreau and his cast and crew are doing here, calling back once again to classic movie adventures, in much the same way George Lucas did with the first “Star Wars” film.And there’s something else going on, too — it was reflected both in bits of dialogue, as when Peli gripes that she doesn’t even know “who to complain to” about her creaky R5 unit, and in longer expository interludes, like Cobb’s story about the evil consortium that swooped into Mos Pelgo on the night the Death Star blew up. These are all part of what’s quickly becoming the larger theme of “The Mandalorian,” about what happens when a galaxy falls into disorder and disarray. Nothing works right. No one’s where they’re supposed to be. Even good folks like the Marshal are wearing outfits that don’t belong to them.It’s up to the Mandalorian and the Child to start putting things back in place. And if this season is as good as the last one was, they’ll keep doing that one small step at a time, side-by-side with some of Hollywood’s greatest character actors.This Is the WayWhat exactly happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away that turned most of the universe’s beverages blue? When Cobb invites the Mandalorian to sit down and have a drink, he pours two glasses of a sickly blue-colored cocktail called “spotchka,” which looks like (and may actually be) fermented bantha milk.As always with “The Mandalorian,” there were surely Easter eggs and inside jokes in “The Marshal” that flew by too quickly for me to catch them on first viewing. By the end of the weekend, the fandom will undoubtedly have documented them all, so I recommend doing some Googling if that’s something you’re into. I did catch one thing though: I couldn’t help noticing that the phrasing Peli Motto uses when she’s asked about Mos Pelgo — saying, “I haven’t heard that name in a while” — echoes what Ben Kenobi says to Luke Skywalker when he’s asked about the name “Obi-Wan.” Tatooine just seems to be a planet where people and places are easily lost.If you didn’t immediately recognize the mysterious figure who appears right at the end of “The Marshal” — watching our hero from a distance — the closing credits should’ve helpfully cued you that the man was played by Temuera Morrison, who played Jango Fett in the “Star Wars” prequel trilogy. Is he playing Boba Fett now? Was Cobb Vanth wearing Boba Fett’s old armor? If so, is Boba Fett the other Mandalorian on Tatooine that Din Djarin is meant to find? To be continued …. More