Eliana Willis

More stories

  • 100 Shares129 Views

    in Television

    Bo Burnham Has Turned His Absence Into Performance

    He’s managed to turn his supposed absence into a performance, whether on “The Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show” or in your social media feed.Early in his bold and vexing new reality show, Jerrod Carmichael hears a knock at the door and opens it to find a very tall man in a ski mask and goggles just standing there. He pauses to process, then concludes: “This makes sense.”Most viewers probably thought: Really? But certain comedy fans would come to a different response: Welcome back, Bo Burnham.Sure, we don’t know it’s him. On “The Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show” (HBO), this lanky masked man is referred to as Anonymous and his voice is disguised. But if this isn’t Bo Burnham, it’s a pretty good impression — or at least, one of him dressed to rob a bank.Burnham has been conspicuously quiet since rocketing to superstar status by producing one of the signal works of art about the pandemic, the 2021 musical comedy “Inside.” He dropped out of a role in a TV series and appeared in no new specials, movies or live shows. Except for “Inside” outtakes, he hasn’t shown up in any new work — until, possibly, now.Starring in three of the eight episodes, Anonymous comes off like a performance piece, half-abstraction and half-person, with no background, identity, face. He stands out more by revealing little, which is only one of the ways he’s in opposition to Carmichael, who is seen doing stand-up in short clips and having thorny, difficult conversations with his loved ones. Anonymous plays a crucial role, an exasperated ombudsman, picking apart the entire enterprise from the inside, providing a critique of its authenticity and the perils of performing for an audience.These are hallmarks of Bo Burnham’s work dating at least to his far-too-overlooked MTV sitcom, “Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous,” a satire of reality shows.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

  • 175 Shares189 Views

    in Television

    What’s on TV This Week: ‘Mary & George’ and Lots of ‘Law & Order’

    The Starz show starring Nicholas Galitzine and Julianne Moore wraps up. Three versions of the crime procedural air finales.For those who still haven’t cut the cord, here is a selection of cable and network TV shows, movies and specials that broadcast this week, May 6-12. Details and times are subject to change.MondayTHE PARENT TRAP (1998) 8 p.m. on Freeform. With Lindsay Lohan returning to the screen in “Irish Wish,” why not go back down memory lane? This movie stars Lohan as both Annie and Hallie (some flawless split-screening was involved), twins separated at birth who meet at summer camp and team up to get their divorced parents back together. One of their roadblocks is their dad’s girlfriend, Meredith Blake (Elaine Hendrix), who has gone down in Y2K history as one of its chicest villains.TuesdayAriana Madix and Andy Cohen at last year’s “Vanderpump Rules” reunion.BravoVANDERPUMP RULES REUNION 8 p.m. on Bravo. This three-part reunion, which will rehash Season 11 of “Vanderpump Rules,” is a must-watch after the finale left lots of questions up in air, starting with: Is there a post-#Scandoval future for this reality show? The episode last week ended on a cliffhanger, with Ariana Madix walking out of filming after her ex boyfriend Tom Sandoval approached her at a party.WednesdayROYAL RULES OF OHIO 10:30 p.m. on Freeform. On this brand-new reality show, three sisters, who claim to be descendants of Ghana royalty, try to balance day-to-day life in Columbus, Ohio, with their parents’ upper-crust expectations — shenanigans and mischief ensue. Since I blasted through all eight seasons of “Summer House” at an inappropriately fast rate, it’s exciting that there is a new reality show in the mix.ThursdayChristopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay in “Law & Order: Organized Crime.”NBCWe 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

  • 150 Shares179 Views

    in Television

    Jean Smart of ‘Hacks’ Is Having a Third Act for the Ages

    Calling someone a “hack” is a particularly vicious insult. It implies that they have no talent or, worse, that they have wasted it. The slight is hurled early on in “Hacks,” the popular HBO series starring Jean Smart as Deborah Vance, a seasoned comedian who teams up with a younger one named Ava (Hannah Einbinder) to freshen up her act. When they meet, Ava takes stock of Deborah — her glitzy mansion, her residency at a casino in Las Vegas, a hustle selling branded merchandise on cable TV — and sees her as the definition of a hack, a sellout cashing in on her former fame. Deborah is unfazed. Amused, even. What does this kid know about her career, about years of hard work, about the unfairness, sexism and disregard? Deborah, meanwhile, sees Ava as a bit of a hack herself — an entitled and spoiled young internet persona who was canceled for posting a joke about a closeted senator. (“Sounds like a Tuesday for me,” Deborah retorts when Ava complains about it.) Deborah is a workaholic on the verge of bitter, someone who grew tired of being cut and so became a knife. She’s shameless, litigious, petty, vengeful, stubborn — qualities that become a comedic asset for the character and a narrative engine for the show. Just how far is Deborah Vance willing to go? Throughout the first two seasons, much of the drama — and delight — is in seeing Ava puncture Deborah’s carefully lacquered facade with her Gen Z earnestness and sharp wit. In one of the show’s funniest moments, Deborah bluntly asks Ava, “You a lesbian?” Ava leans back in her chair while considering the question. She responds with a treatise reflecting the identity politics of a generation raised with nonexistent boundaries and zero sexual shame, ending with a graphic description of how she orgasms. Deborah doesn’t miss a beat. “Jesus Christ!” she exclaims. “I was just wondering why you were dressed like Rachel Maddow’s mechanic!” Deborah and Ava are mirrors for each other, gifted and perspicacious performers at opposite ends of their careers, both trying to be their most audacious selves in an industry that will dispose of them the moment they cross an invisible line.Over the last three years, “Hacks” has earned its two Emmy nominations for outstanding comedy series by cultivating a polyphonic, fast-paced humor relentless as Deborah’s own quick mind. There are constant insult jokes about Ava’s appearance (“Your manicurist must use a paint roller!”); manic banter between Jimmy, Deborah’s beleaguered agent, and his delusional assistant (played brilliantly by the comedian Meg Stalter); antic bits like a seemingly poignant scene of Deborah’s daughter playing classical piano as a reflection of her gilded upbringing, before it devolves into absurdity when the music is revealed to be the theme song from “Jurassic Park.” And then there are the battles royale in which Ava and Deborah fire hilarious barbs back and forth until their frustration gives way to awe at each other’s cleverness and something like respect blooms. It’s weaponized therapy.Hannah Einbinder and Jean Smart in the new season of ‘‘Hacks.’’MaxWe 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

  • 113 Shares99 Views

    in Television

    ‘Saturday Night Live’ Wishes You a Happy Mother’s Day

    The “S.N.L.” veteran Maya Rudolph hosted an episode that featured multiple sketches celebrating moms.Sorry, dads: Because your holiday doesn’t come until June, when “Saturday Night Live” is in reruns, you don’t get anything special from “S.N.L.” But moms, since Mother’s Day arrives the morning after the second-to-last live episode of the season — when everyone at the show has an eye on the door and is saving those last few drops of topical content for the finale — you get a whole brunch-load of “S.N.L.” sketches dedicated to motherhood, beginning with a now-traditional segment in which the cast members trade jokes with their real-life mothers.This week’s “S.N.L.” broadcast, which was hosted by Maya Rudolph and featured the musical guest Vampire Weekend, used the occasion of Mother’s Day to take a break from opening sketches that satirize current events, much to the disappointment of Kenan Thompson’s mother. “That’s too bad,” she said, standing on the stage of Studio 8H with her son. “I was excited to see who was going to play Stormy Daniels.”Andrew Dismukes’s mom shared embarrassing photos of her son in the bathtub, the mothers of Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang told jokes intended for the Netflix roast of Tom Brady, and Sarah Sherman’s mom pitched her daughter an idea: “R.F.K. Jr. said they found a worm in his brain — you could be the worm,” she said. (Stash that away in your own brains for later.)Rudolph, the “S.N.L.” alumna who returned to host for her third time, used her opening monologue to note the fact that she not only is a mother of four children — she is mother. That ubiquitous bit of internet slang was the framework for a surprisingly synchronized live musical number (à la Madonna’s “Vogue”) where Rudolph navigated some quick costume changes, referenced her roles in movies like “Bridesmaids” and her past “S.N.L.” impersonations of Vice President Kamala Harris and Oprah Winfrey, while also shouting out other beloved female “S.N.L.” characters like the Sweeney Sisters, Debbie Downer and Mary Katherine Gallagher.If all of that wasn’t enough to make you O.D. on M-O-M, there was also a filmed segment featuring Rudolph as a beleaguered mother repeatedly rescuing her daughter from slumber parties, and Heidi Gardner offering Mother’s Day gift suggestions on Weekend Update as the character A Woman Who Says She’s Not Mad. Oh, mother.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

  • 150 Shares169 Views

    in Television

    Sam Rubin, Los Angeles TV Anchor and Entertainment Reporter, Dies at 64

    Mr. Rubin began at the Los Angeles television news station KTLA in 1991 and became a staple of morning viewing through his interviews with celebrities.Sam Rubin, a journalist for the television station KTLA 5 in Los Angeles whose morning interviews with celebrities became requisite viewing for much of the entertainment industry and who endeared himself to Hollywood insiders with his geniality and knowledge of their work, died on Friday. He was 64.Mr. Rubin’s death was announced by a KTLA anchor, Frank Buckley. A tribute segment that aired on the station said the cause was a heart attack.In an industry known for its changing names and evolving trends, Mr. Rubin was for decades a mainstay for viewers across the city and an interview with him was considered a rite of passage for many stars.His ability to make celebrities feel comfortable as he asked them about their craft spanned generations.Although it was clear that Mr. Rubin was immersed in the minutiae of his beat, part of his enduring appeal came from the antics he himself brought to the studio and his ability to change the pace of what could be a rote interview.“Is it shampoo and conditioner, or just shampoo — what is the hair regimen, Jared?” he said in an interview with the actor Jared Leto.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

  • 175 Shares169 Views

    in Television

    Trixie Mattel of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ on the Sitcom That Brings Us All Together

    “The love story of Jim and Pam — every time I watch that unfold, I find something new to cry about,” the entertainer said.Trixie Mattel knows that anything is prettier in pink — almost.She had no qualms about drenching the Palm Springs resort that she and her partner, David Silver, redid in 2022 in bubble gum hues, but their private residence was another matter.In “Trixie Motel: Drag Me Home,” out on June 1 on Max, Mattel — who won the third season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” — and Silver transform an old craftsman in Los Angeles into a pie-in-the-sky fabulosity.“We really wanted sexy Hollywood Regency, but it’s not just my house, so it can’t be all pink and girly,” Mattel (real name: Brian Firkus) said in a video call. “Let’s just say it definitely looks like two gay men live here now.”“There was something very emotional about building your home with your partner that you’re going to spend your life in,” she added before talking about her obsession with Amanda Lepore, the resonance of “Watchmen” and the bonding power of “The Office.” These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1BlondieWhen I was 15 or 16, I had my first job at a chicken restaurant, and I used to drive around in my ’94 Dodge Intrepid, listening to the best of Blondie with the CD that I got at the Target in Sheboygan, Wis. I guess a female-fronted rock band for me was really a big deal. I’m gay. And so something with a woman in the front who’s glamorous but powerful and the voice is beautiful — it just blew my mind.2Purple Disco MachineIt’s the gayest music. It’s so fun and glitzy and sexy, and it has so much flourish, and it has so much style, and he riffs on a lot of classic disco elements but kind of updates it. His remix of “Praise You” by Fatboy Slim is just amazing. He has a new single out called “Beat of Your Heart” that I’m in love with. I play him all the time in my DJ sets.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

  • 150 Shares99 Views

    in Television

    In ‘The Big Cigar,’ a Black Panther Stars in a Fake Movie

    This new series is based on the unlikely true story of a Hollywood producer who used a bogus film production to help Huey Newton flee to Cuba in 1974.When the movie producer Bert Schneider met the Black Panther Party leader Huey P. Newton, he swooned.Schneider, who had helped revolutionize the movie industry (and made a lot of money) as a producer of films like “Easy Rider,” wanted to shake up things off the screen as well. He saw Newton, who had already done a prison stint for the killing of a police officer — Newton denied that he shot the officer, and the conviction was eventually overturned — as the real deal, a star on the front lines of the actual revolution.Their unlikely partnership is now the heart of the new limited series “The Big Cigar,” premiering April 17 on Apple TV+. It’s a caper about how Newton (played by André Holland) fled to Cuba in 1974 after he was arrested and charged with the murder of a prostitute (also a crime he claimed he didn’t commit). Schneider (Alessandro Nivola) ponied up cash and logistical assistance, including a fake film production, to help Newton escape.Holland and Alessandro Nivola, as Bert Schneider, in “The Big Cigar,” which is based on a true story.Brendan Adam-Zwelling/Apple TV+“Cigar” tells a wild tale with shootouts and chases and a couple of strange bedfellows: a Black revolutionary on the run and a well-coiffed Hollywood power player looking to bankroll him. Even as it takes some liberties with the facts, the series reflects the ties that existed between some counterculture entertainment figures and radical organizations of the ’60s and ’70s.“We didn’t see it as a story of Hollywood patting itself on the back,” Jim Hecht, the writer and an executive producer, said in a video interview. “There was a time when people actually did put their bodies on the line and do things for a cause that they believed in. They took personal risks to do things that were political.”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

  • 113 Shares189 Views

    in Television

    ‘Doctor Who’ Season Premiere Recap: Back in the Groove

    The new season, written by Russell T Davies and starring Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th Doctor, opens with a double episode premiere.Season 1, Episodes 2 and 3: ‘Space Babies’ and ‘The Devil’s Chord’Russell T Davies, the showrunner for the new season of “Doctor Who,” had a tough task ahead of him.How do you convince longstanding fans that this British institution of a show is back in safe hands after several disappointing seasons, while also introducing a new international audience to a sci-fi series steeped in 60 years of history?In the premiere double bill of “Doctor Who,” you can feel Davies grappling with these questions, with largely successful results. After the show was canceled in 1989, Davies rebooted “Doctor Who” in 2005, manning the ship during Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant’s tenures as the time-traveling Doctor. Under Davies, “Doctor Who” was not only popular, but, dare I say it, kind of cool.We met Davies’s new Doctor, played by the Scottish-Rwandan actor Ncuti Gatwa, last year in the show’s 60th anniversary episodes (and somewhat confusingly, this new season’s first episode aired as a stand-alone Christmas special). This is also the first season to debut on Disney+ in the United States, and since the rules governing time and space in the “Whoniverse” are notoriously complicated, there’s a lot of world building to do in less than two hours of TV.Typically, a “Doctor Who” two-parter would feature a shared story or location, but here we have two separate adventures. The first episode, “Space Babies,” does much of the heavy lifting to set up the season, so that by the time “The Devil’s Chord” rolls around, “Doctor Who” can do what it does best: take the audience on rip-roaring, high-voltage adventures.“Space Babies” picks up where the Christmas episode, “The Church on Ruby Road,” left off. The Doctor’s new companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) enters the TARDIS, his spaceship disguised as a police box, with lots of questions about where he comes from. It’s the Doctor’s job to take her, and any first-time viewers, through the basic Time Lord fact sheet: He comes from the planet Gallifrey and is the last of his species, an orphan like Ruby; he has been alive for thousands of years; and he spends his time traveling through time and space. As introductions go, it’s not subtle, but it gets the job done.Ruby is human, TARDIS technology confirms, but she remains a question mark we can expect the season to return to later.Bad Wolf/BBC StudiosWe 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