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      ‘Carol & the End of the World’ Review: An Affirming Apocalypse

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      An animated Netflix miniseries, about a quiet woman navigating the last days of the planet, looks for hope where you wouldn’t expect to find any.In Netflix’s new animated miniseries “Carol & the End of the World,” the question is not whether the apocalypse can be averted. The rogue planet that is definitely going to collide with Earth in about seven months is steadily growing larger in the sky. Humanity has accepted its fate; heroics are of no use. With the time they have left, people are out partying, traveling and hang-gliding, all of which are now clothing optional.Amid the bacchanal, the question — at least for Carol Kohl, an introverted 42-year-old woman in an unnamed American city — is what to do if you don’t care to join the fun. Carol is a happy creature of habit, and she does not see why the imminent end of the world means that anything has to change. Her wealthy parents may be spending their days naked and in a passionate throuple with her father’s hunky caregiver, but Carol just wishes she could still go to Applebee’s after work. What she would really like to do is to go to work, period.“Carol & the End of the World,” which premiered on Friday, was created by Dan Guterman, an Emmy-winning comedy writer and alumnus of The Onion who has worked on a small but interesting roster of shows that includes “At Home With Amy Sedaris,” “The Colbert Report,” “Community” and “Rick and Morty.” His new series has elements of science-fiction and dystopian workplace mystery, but it’s essentially a gentle, cleareyed coming-of-middle-age story. Carol is remarkable in her unremarkableness, and the show’s tension lies in whether she will come into her own in the little time she has left. Guterman doesn’t exactly find hope in the apocalypse, but he holds out for common humanity and a flicker of redemption.The actress and stand-up comedian Martha Kelly voices Carol with an abashed drone that has a core of dogged resolve. (She played another low-key character, Martha the claims adjuster, on the Zach Galifianakis comedy “Baskets.”) Carol is an odd, lonely, awkward duck, but she is that by choice. Her sister, who is spending her last days trotting the globe with younger men and compulsively skydiving, says: “She always did her own thing. Do you know how hard that is? I always do what everyone else does.”The world of the show has a surface realism and a fairy-tale logic: No one is going to work, but somehow the trains still run and cable news networks still report; benignly silent soldiers fold laundry and ring up groceries. Traveling the mostly empty, gently trashed streets of the city (the whimsical, colorful animation is by Bardel Entertainment, the Canadian studio that also does “Rick and Morty”), Carol discovers the mysterious venue around which the story revolves: a bustling, brightly lighted accounting department in which towers of paper are shuffled for no obvious purpose or any apparent employer. For Carol it’s nirvana, but even here she has trouble getting with the program. She is determined both to learn the office’s secret and to instill some camaraderie in its silent, shellshocked work force.Carol’s new sense of purpose sends her and two co-workers, the formidable Donna (Kimberly Hébert Gregory) and the effervescent Luis (Mel Rodriguez), on missions that have a dry, deadpan comic edge. The 10 half-hour episodes are also fleshed out with separate story lines involving Carol’s family (Bridget Everett is the voice of her frenetic sister, Elena), and a sad father (Michael Chernus) and son (Sean Giambrone) with whom Carol is briefly embroiled. Some of the later episodes take on stylized forms, like a riff on an “Endless Summer”-style surfing documentary or a human resources investigation recounted in true crime voice-over.Guterman and his fellow writers, Kevin Arrieta and Noah Prestwich, let the story wander here and there, and their epiphanies can be small-bore; if you’re not on the show’s wavelength, you may find it aimless or mundanely sentimental. But it has a shaggy, slightly ethereal charm and sympathetic characters whose varied reactions to the end of the world ring largely true. “Carol & the End of the World” resonates with all the medical, meteorological and political terrors that animate the current wave of apocalyptic entertainments, but it’s not out to scare you or to lecture you. It’s for people like Carol who live inside their heads and need a little more time to emerge, even when the world is on fire. More

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      Cord Jefferson on ‘American Fiction’

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      The Emmy-winning writer and former journalist drew on personal experience for his feature debut, a layered sendup of race and hypocrisy in the book and film worlds.Before he read “Erasure,” Percival Everett’s satirical novel about Black representation in the publishing industry, Cord Jefferson had never really thought of himself as a movie director. He had hoped to direct for television — his writing credits include several episodes of “Master of None,” “The Good Place” and HBO’s “Watchmen,” for which he shared an Emmy in 2020 — but even that seemed like a stretch.“I thought they might let me direct something that I helped write or create,” he said in a recent interview. “And even then it would be like Episode 4 of 10, not the pilot or the finale.”Things changed in December 2020, when Jefferson, 41, picked up “Erasure” and became enchanted. The book, published in 2001, is the story of Thelonius Ellison, known as Monk, a disillusioned Black intellectual whose mocking attempt at writing a stereotypical “ghetto novel” becomes a straightforward best seller.“Twenty pages in, I knew I had to write a film adaptation,” Jefferson said. “By the time I finished the book, I knew I had to direct it.” “American Fiction,” his take on the novel — and feature film debut as both a writer and director — is in theaters Friday. It stars Jeffrey Wright as Monk, Issa Rae as a rival novelist and Tracee Ellis Ross and Sterling K. Brown as Monk’s siblings. In September, it won the top prize at the Toronto International Film Festival, a precursor for an Academy Awards nomination for best picture for the past 11 years.Over lunch in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, Jefferson, a former journalist and editor at Gawker, discussed his personal connection to Everett’s story, his adoration of the writer-director Nicole Holofcener and shedding tears in a pitch meeting. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.What was it about the book that spoke to you?There was so much. The most obvious is just the conversation that it’s having about the expectations of a Black artist in this country, what people want or think that Black art should be. That was a huge part of my life when I was still working in journalism. I wrote this article called “The Racism Beat,” which is very much about the expectation that Black journalists are just there to write about the bad things that happen to Black people and racism and violence.But besides that, there are three siblings in the book, and I have two older siblings. And there’s an ailing parent in the book, and my mother passed of cancer in 2016, after two years of struggling. One of the siblings in the book is charged with caring for the parent because the other two are off doing their own thing, and that was the dynamic with us. My oldest brother shouldered that responsibility. He went about it stoically and never complained or anything, but I had this residual guilt over not being there.From big things to small things, there was just all of this stuff that felt like it was speaking to me directly. I went to a college in Virginia called William & Mary, and there’s a reference to William & Mary in the novel. Nobody ever talks about William & Mary in pop culture! It just felt like somebody had written a gift specifically for me, like, “I made this for you.”The parts about the expectations facing Black artists, did they match your own experience when you arrived in Hollywood?Oh, definitely. I thought I was going to get there and it would be like, “Oh yeah, there’s a world of opportunity and we’re just going to write about whatever. The Black experience in America now includes everything, all the way up to being the president of the United States.” But there’s genres for “prestige Black projects”: slave overcoming adversity and escaping, Black civil rights activist overcoming white racism, inner-city gangland stuff, poverty and broken homes.I’ll tell you a true story of something that happened to a friend that exemplifies this perfectly. She went into a meeting at this production company and they’re like, “What are you interested in writing?” She says, “I’m interested in romantic comedies, like ‘When Harry Met Sally,’ ‘Sleepless in Seattle,’ classic, generational, Nora Ephron comedies. I would also love to write a ’90s-style erotic thriller.” They’re like, “All right, great. We’ll come back to you later with some ideas.” About three hours later, they call her and say, “We’ve got this story about a blind slave who, thanks to a wealthy white benefactor, learns to play the piano and becomes a piano prodigy. Are you interested in this?”Wow.They see a Black person and they can’t see past that. I think there’s a lot of people who say, “Well, why would we hire you to write a rom-com? Why would we hire you to write an erotic thriller?” There’s an inability to think of us as having our own passions and our own complex existence outside of this very limited window of what they allow us to say about our lives. These are things that people of color have been talking about for a very long time. To me, the real spiritual ancestor for this project would be “Hollywood Shuffle” [Robert Townsend’s satire of Black representation in Hollywood, released in 1987].That was a real foundational text for me when I was a kid. I loved that movie. I probably saw it before I was 10. It opened my eyes to this idea that you can talk about these things that are very serious but also have fun with them, that not only is it OK to laugh, you need to laugh because otherwise you’ll just be miserable all the time. It blew my mind wide open.From left, Sterling K. Brown, Jeffrey Wright and Erika Alexander in “American Fiction.” The movie won the top prize at the Toronto International Film Festival.Claire Folger/Orion PicturesIt’s funny because the two references I kept thinking about while watching your movie were “Hollywood Shuffle” and Nicole Holofcener, which is a cool combination.Dude, love Nicole Holofcener. She’s a genius. I’m so happy you said that. To me, that’s the greatest compliment. I love her so much. I saw “Friends With Money” [2006] when it first came out, and I was just blown away. She’s a huge influence on me. She has such a subtle, deft hand with class dynamics. And I love her character work. I’m forgetting the one with Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus …“Enough Said.”Yeah. I just feel like she has an attention to detail when it comes to how human beings actually interact and live their lives. What I set out to make with this movie was something that felt a little bit like life. To me, even in the most miserable times, I’ve always found ways to laugh and enjoy myself and time with my family and friends. There are all these things that buoy your spirits. I think it’s a disservice to the human experience to not reflect that. And that’s something Nicole Holofcener does really well. I think Noah Baumbach does, also. Spike Lee, Bong Joon Ho. All people who’ve inspired me over the years.I wanted to ask you about something that happens toward the end of the film, which is this really interesting conversation between Monk and Sintara (Issa Rae) that raises the question of whether his distaste for her novel masks a distaste for a certain kind of Black person. In your mind, what do you think Monk’s relationship is with other Black people?Something Jeffrey and I talked about the first time we met and that we agreed on instantly was we didn’t want this movie to be some Talented Tenth, respectability politics [expletive]. We didn’t want it to feel like we were finger wagging and saying, “This is the right way to be Black, and all you other people are doing it wrong.” Both of us knew the movie could not be that. So that scene was important because we didn’t want people to come away being like, “Oh, well, she’s the villain and he’s the hero.” There are no villains or heroes.What I really like about that scene is I don’t really know who I agree with, ultimately. They both make interesting points. But I will say that when she says that line, “Potential is what people see when they think what’s in front of them isn’t good enough,” I think it’s the first time we see Monk confronted with the idea that he might be a little self-loathing, that he might have an internal problem with his Blackness. It’s one of the first times that we see him really get clammed up.Do you think it’s directing now for you? Or will you go back to writing television?I’m working on four different movies right now and I want to keep writing and directing movies, but I also want to do TV. I published a short story last year, and I’d love to do more of that. I’m about 60 percent done with a stage play. I just want to keep making stuff. When T Street [a producer of “American Fiction”] told me that they were greenlighting the movie, I started crying in the meeting. I had been told no for so long. I’d worked on all these things that just sort of went nowhere. It starts to break your heart eventually. You wonder, “Is this ever going to happen for me? Or is this just going to be a thing that I wanted to do my whole life?” The fact that I was able to crack the door a little bit to make this. … I feel incredibly honored. More

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      Kal Penn: ‘Biden’s Only Crime Is Having a Messed-Up Son’

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      “The Daily Show” guest host said that impeaching President Biden would “be a terrible precedent to set — I don’t want to see Tom Hanks go to jail.”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. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Not-So Like Father, Like SonHunter Biden spoke outside of U.S. Capitol this week, criticizing Republicans for making light of his addiction struggles and also offering to publicly testify on behalf of his father in the new impeachment investigation into President Joe Biden.On “The Daily Show,” guest host Kal Penn joked that President Biden’s only crime “is having a messed-up son, which would be a terrible precedent to set — I don’t want to see Tom Hanks go to jail.”“That’s right, Hunter Biden spoke to reporters yesterday and said that his father was, “not financially involved in any of his business ventures.” Well, I believe that. He seems like the kind of dad who wouldn’t even get involved in your lemonade stand when you were a kid. [imitating Joe Biden] ‘You want to sell lemonade, do you? I guess you better get busy planting a lemon tree.’” — SETH MEYERS“To be fair, we can’t say for sure whether Biden ever did anything shady with his son’s business dealings. Their story has changed over time, but we do know that Republicans don’t actually give a [expletive] about people profiting off the presidency, because Donald Trump was the president. He had so many schemes going on, running the country was basically his side hustle.” — KAL PENN“Unfortunately, when it comes to Hunter Biden, Republicans are also struggling with addiction.” — SETH MEYERSThe Punchiest Punchlines (Got Milk? Edition)“To be fair, before leaving town, Congress did tackle the nation’s most pressing issue and passed a bill allowing schools to serve whole milk. I mean, what are the chances of that passing — 1 percent, 2 percent, tops.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“It’s all part of Congress’s new dairy campaign: ‘Got anything that’ll distract people from our incompetence?’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Now, this bill passed with bipartisan support, but it was a particular priority for Republicans, which makes sense. I mean, you can’t look at this party and tell me you’re surprised they are obsessed with milk.” — KAL PENN“How much energy does milk give you if Santa has to stop and drink more at every house? Santa doesn’t need milk, he needs one of those Panera lemonades.” — KAL PENN“By the way, are kids really out there demanding whole milk? They’re school kids — they want Capri Suns or, at best, milk-flavored vapes.” — KAL PENN“But, I got to be honest, there isn’t actually a good reason not to expand milk options for kids: Milk is kind of disgusting. Like is that weird that we drink milk as a species? It’s not your mom’s milk. It’s not even your friend’s mom. It’s like a completely different animal.” — KAL PENNThe Bits Worth WatchingLouis Virtel, a “Jimmy Kimmel Live” writer, offered advice to gay Americans going home for the holidays.Also, Check This OutMadonna performing at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Wednesday night.The New York TimesMadonna’s Celebration Tour is a career retrospective that thematically explores her past and provides a glimpse of her future. More

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      What to Watch: ‘Men of a Certain Age’ With Andre Braugher

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      Two of the actor’s best performance are, unfortunately, not streaming. But what is perhaps his warmest performance is available on Max.From left, Ray Romano, Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula in a scene from “Men of a Certain Age,” one of the best series starring Braugher that is actually streaming.Danny Feld/TNTThe actor Andre Braugher’s death on Monday signals the end of an era for television — the era in which his vibrant, engrossing performances helped carve out what top-shelf television could be. His presence on any show — in any scene — was a sign to perk up one’s ears, and the arc of his television career is the arc of modern television.When network dramas were the best thing going, Braugher was the best on the best. When basic cable became home to creative, distinctive shows, there was Braugher, in antihero mode on “Thief” and later in grounded, more easygoing mode on “Men of a Certain Age.” Quirky single-camera network comedy, snappy streaming drama — where goes Braugher, so goes our attention.“Homicide: Life on the Street” is among the greatest network dramas in television history — and it can’t exist without Braugher’s electric, Emmy-winning performance as Frank Pembleton, a passionate, exacting Baltimore detective. In a show filled with superb acting and rich stories, Braugher is still the standout. I will never understand why this show is not streaming; I feel I have been banging this drum since before drums were invented.Also absent from streaming is the bleak and intense 2006 miniseries “Thief,” for which Braugher won his second Emmy. He starred as the head of a crime ring in post-Katrina New Orleans, and the show was half dark heists, half wrenching domestic drama, with Braugher as a grieving widower at odds with his teenage stepdaughter (Mae Whitman, also terrific). You will never see better weeping on television.While “Homicide” is probably the brightest star in the Braugher galaxy, “Men of a Certain Age” is perhaps the warmest. Luckily, this one is streaming; both seasons are on Max. Braugher stars with Ray Romano and Scott Bakula as longtime friends, each struggling with feeling simultaneously stuck and adrift. Bakula was the bachelor free spirit; Romano was the anxious soon-to-be-divorced dad; and Braugher was the ground-down family man, Owen, who works at his father’s car dealership, which fills him with resentment he can’t quite confront.Every time I revisit “Men,” I’m struck anew by its lyricism and perceptiveness, and even when I intend to look up one clip, I wind up watching seven episodes. Owen both gives and receives lectures, and Braugher shines equally as an authority on life and as the mad little boy being scolded. While he delivers a more strictly comedic performance on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” Braugher is hilarious here, too, and where “Nine-Nine” is cartoonish, “Men” is naturalistic. It’s a softer role in some ways — gentle, unfussy — but Braugher’s mastery of rhythm is in full force.In “Homicide,” Pembleton survives a stroke but endures its lingering effects on his speech, mobility and cognition. In “Men,” Owen has poorly managed Type 1 diabetes. Though the characters are different in almost all ways, they’re both people who avoid fragility. Braugher’s performances were so total that you couldn’t imagine a fault line — there had to be some other force chipping away at his vitality. His death feels more shocking because of it. How could a performer so totally alive ever be anything but? More

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      Andre Braugher Died of Lung Cancer, His Publicist Says

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      Mr. Braugher, who died this week, received the diagnosis a few months ago. The “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” actor won an Emmy for his work on “Homicide: Life on the Street.”Andre Braugher, the Emmy-winning actor who died this week at 61, was diagnosed with lung cancer a few months ago before succumbing to the disease, his longtime publicist, Jennifer Allen, said on Thursday.When Ms. Allen confirmed his death this week, she said he had died after a brief illness. A 2014 profile by The New York Times Magazine said that Mr. Braugher was intensely private and “stopped drinking alcohol and smoking years ago.”Though he had an expansive career, Mr. Braugher was best known for his roles as a stoic, composed police officer on “Homicide: Life on the Street,” the 1990s NBC police procedural, and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” the Fox sitcom that later moved to NBC.Mr. Braugher won Emmy Awards in 1998 for his work as Detective Frank Pembleton on “Homicide” and in 2006 for his role as a coolheaded crook in the six-part FX crime thriller “Thief.” He was nominated four times for his portrayal of Capt. Raymond Holt in “Brookyn Nine-Nine.” More

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      Jimmy Kimmel Has Questions About the Biden Impeachment Inquiry

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      Even Republicans don’t seem to know what it’s about, hosts said. “You can’t impeach someone for falling asleep during ‘Wheel of Fortune,’” said Jimmy Kimmel.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. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.‘You Always Remember Your First’House Republicans voted to formally open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden on Wednesday.“They managed to get the votes they needed for this, even though no one seems to know exactly what they would be impeaching him for,” Jimmy Kimmel said.“They have presented no evidence of any wrongdoing by Joe Biden. You can’t impeach someone for falling asleep during ‘Wheel of Fortune.’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“This headline tells you all you need to know about the Republican Party right now: ‘House Set to Approve Biden Impeachment Inquiry as It Hunts for an Offense.’ In other words, they don’t have a crime, but they do have an investigation. It’s like an episode of ‘CSI,’ but if there was no ‘C,’ just ‘SI.’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Guys, guys, come on. That’s kind of step one!” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Today, House Republicans held a vote on opening a formal inquiry into President Biden’s impeachment. Yep, when he heard, former President Trump said, ‘That’s nice. You always remember your first.’” — JIMMY FALLON“The whole thing is ridiculous. If you want to derail Biden, you don’t give him an impeachment — you give him a microphone.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (Happy Birthday, Taylor Edition)“And then we have Time’s Person of the Year, who is celebrating a birthday today. Taylor Swift turned 34 today. And what an absolutely terrifying situation for Travis Kelce. I mean, getting your new girlfriend the right gift on the first birthday together is always a challenge. It’s even harder when there’s an army of 12-year-old girls ready to kill you if you screw it up.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“He’s under a lot of pressure. He knows if he blows it, she’ll just give herself another gift and call it ‘Taylor’s Version.’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Man, if you think your job is hard, try being the waiter who has to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Taylor Swift.” — JIMMY FALLON“I heard that Taylor celebrated her birthday with close friends here in New York City. I mean, that’s impossible, or else I would have been invited.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingJimmy Fallon and the pop star Meghan Trainor premiered their new holiday bop, “Wrap Me Up,” on Wednesday’s “Tonight Show.”What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightGreta Gerwig, the writer and director of “Barbie,” will appear on Thursday’s “Late Show.”Also, Check This OutWu-Tang Clan performing in New York in August.Bennett Raglin/Getty ImagesThe hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan will launch a Las Vegas residency on Super Bowl weekend. More

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      Andre Braugher, ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ and ‘Homicide’ Actor, Dies at 61

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      Mr. Braugher was best known for playing stoic police officers in the two acclaimed television series. He died on Monday after a brief illness, his publicist said.Andre Braugher, an Emmy Award-winning actor best known for playing stoic police officers on the television shows “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “Homicide: Life on the Street,” died on Monday. He was 61.His death was confirmed on Tuesday by his longtime publicist Jennifer Allen. She said that Mr. Braugher, who lived in New Jersey, had died after a brief illness. She did not elaborate.Mr. Braugher had a breakout role as an intense cop on “Homicide,” a 1990s Baltimore crime show that chronicled the frustrations of policing a city beset with murders. He spent the last years of his life playing another serious police officer in “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” but in a very different register: The series was a sitcom, and he played his role as a police commander for laughs. He also earned plaudits for his portrayal of an openly gay cop who didn’t play to stereotypes.In between, he showed his range by playing parts as diverse as Shakespeare’s Henry V, a car salesman named Owen Thoreau Jr. and an executive editor of The New York Times grappling with the investigative reporting that would kick off the #MeToo era.“I’ve worked with a lot of wonderful actors,” the former Baltimore Sun journalist David Simon, who wrote the book that “Homicide” was based on years before he created the seminal crime drama “The Wire,” said in a post on social media. “I’ll never work with one better.”Mr. Braugher as Detective Frank Pembleton, right, and James Earl Jones in an episode of “Homicide.”Michael Ginsbury/NBCU Photo Bank, via Getty ImagesAndre Keith Braugher was born in Chicago on July 1, 1962, and grew up on the city’s West Side. His mother, Sally Braugher, worked for the United States Postal Service. His father, Floyd Braugher, was a heavy-equipment operator for the state of Illinois.“We lived in a ghetto,” he told The New York Times in 2014. “I could have pretended I was hard or tough and not a square. I wound up not getting in trouble. I don’t consider myself to be especially wise, but I will say that it’s pretty clear that some people want to get out and some people don’t. I wanted out.”Mr. Braugher attended St. Ignatius College Prep, a prestigious, Jesuit Catholic high school in Chicago, and later earned a scholarship to Stanford University. His father, who wanted his son to be an engineer, was furious when he gravitated to acting instead.“Show me Black actors who are earning a living,” his father told him at the time. “What the hell are you going to do, juggle and travel the country?”After graduating from Stanford with a major in math, Mr. Braugher earned a Masters of Fine Arts from the Juilliard School.One of his first professional acting roles was in “Glory,” an Oscar-winning 1989 film about Black soldiers fighting for the Union during the American Civil War. Its star-studded cast included Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington.“I’d rather not work than do a part I’m ashamed of,” Mr. Braugher told The Times that year. “I can tell you now that my mother will be proud of me when she sees me in this role.”Mr. Braugher, far left, next to Denzel Washington, in “Glory.” It was one of his first professional acting roles.Everett Collection, via Alamy Mr. Braugher, who insisted on living in New Jersey even though he often worked in California, would go on to star in many other films. Among the highlights were “Get on the Bus” (1996), about a group of Black men traveling to Washington for the Million Man March, and “City of Angels” (1998), about an angel (Nicolas Cage) who falls in love with a doctor (Meg Ryan).One of Mr. Braugher’s last film projects was “She Said” (2022), a drama about New York Times reporters’ efforts to document sexual abuse by the film mogul Harvey Weinstein. Mr. Braugher played Dean Baquet, the newspaper’s executive editor at the time.He also performed Shakespearean roles at the New York Shakespeare Festival and other venues. In 2014, he told The Times that he was saving the play “Pericles, Prince of Tyre,” for later in life.“I’ve never read it because I’d like to see one Shakespeare play that I don’t know what happens,” he said.Ms. Allen said that Mr. Braugher is survived by his wife, the actress Ami Brabson; his sons Michael, Isaiah and John Wesley; his brother, Charles Jennings; and his mother. His father died in 2011.His most recent project, “The Residence,” a miniseries about a murder in the White House, had been scheduled to resume shooting in January after shutting down because of the Writers Guild of America strike, the entertainment site Deadline reported.As Capt. Raymond Holt in “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.”FOX Image Collection, via Getty ImagesMr. Braugher was best known for his acting on acclaimed television series, which included the lead role of an unorthodox physician on the ABC drama “Gideon’s Crossing” (2000-2001) and the car salesman Owen Thoreau Jr. on the TNT series “Men of a Certain Age” (2009-2011). He also starred in the sixth and final season of the Paramount+ legal drama “The Good Fight” (2017-2022).On “Homicide,” a police procedural that ran from 1993 to 1998, Mr. Braugher played Frank Pembleton, a Baltimore homicide detective. It was a breakout role that earned him an Emmy Award in 1998, along with two Television Critics Association Awards in 1997 and 1998 for best actor in a drama series.In 2006, he won an Emmy for outstanding performance by a lead actor in a miniseries for his starring role as a gang leader in “Thief,” an FX miniseries about crime in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.And on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” a comedy show that aired from 2013 to 2021, Mr. Braugher played Capt. Raymond Holt, a comically stern precinct commander. He received four Emmy nominations and won two Critics Choice Awards for best supporting actor in a comedy series.After the first few episodes of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” aired, he told The New York Times that he saw parallels between that show and “Homicide.”“I don’t want to go way out on a limb about this, you know what I’m saying, and be challenged about it,” he said. “But I think they’re both workplace comedies. In essence it’s taken 20 years to come full circle, but I think they’re in the same place.”Rebecca Carballo More

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      The End of Rudy Giuliani? Kal Penn Is Fine With That.

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      Giuliani’s lawyer told the jury in his defamation trial that awarding $43 million in damages would mean “the end of him.” Penn called that “a best-case scenario.”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. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.The End of Rudy GiulianiThis week saw the start of Rudy Giuliani’s defamation trial, with two Georgia election workers having sued him for $43 million in damages. In opening statements on Monday, Giuliani’s lawyer argued that owing such an amount would “be the end of him.”“The end of Rudy Giuliani? Oh, no, that sounds … awesome!” the “Daily Show” guest host Kal Penn said on Tuesday.“The end of Rudy Giuliani is, like, a best-case scenario. Why is Rudy’s lawyer threatening the jury with a good time?” — KAL PENN“The damages they award could be very damaging for Rudy. The plaintiffs are seeking up to $43 million, and Rudy doesn’t have that kind of cash. He can’t even afford full-length pants.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“The election staffers that Giuliani spread these lies about are two Black women, one named Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, and because of what he said about them, they went through absolute hell. According to their lawyer, they were flooded with accusations of treason and threats laden with expletives and racial slurs. They were forced into hiding, and on at least one occasion, Giuliani directed Trump supporters to Freeman’s home. Now, luckily, Rudy’s always too drunk to give good directions.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Look, I might feel more sympathy for Rudy if during his defamation trial, he wasn’t outside the courthouse doing more defamation. Like, does he get that every time you do a crime, it’s, like, its own thing? This guy is committing defamation like he’s got the unlimited plan — your crimes don’t roll over to next month, Rudy.” — KAL PENNThe Punchiest Punchlines (Can You Spot Me? Edition)“Today, President Biden hosted Ukrainian President Zelensky at the White House. When he asked for money and support, Zelensky said, ‘Sorry, Joe, I got my own problem.’” — JIMMY FALLON“It got a little awkward. Apparently, for a minute, Biden forgot who he was meeting with and offered to zero out Zelensky’s student loan balance.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Zelensky met with all 100 U.S. senators today to ask for additional funding, more humanitarian aid, and to show Ted Cruz how to grow a beard.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“At this point, the U.S. hasn’t agreed to give Ukraine any more funding. Then Zelensky saw the White House’s 98 Christmas trees and was like, ‘Yeah, I can tell money’s tight.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingSean Hayes popped by “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to deliver a message from the Gay Nutcracker, who is riling up some conservatives this holiday season.What We’re Excited About on Wednesday NightDanielle Brooks will sit down with Seth Meyers to discuss her Golden Globe-nominated performance in “The Color Purple” on Wednesday’s “Late Night.”Also, Check This Out“The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show” stars two of America’s most famous drag queens.Santiago Felipe“The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show,” a live production stopping by New York City and starring the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” alums Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme, features dancing candy canes, glittery gowns and songs about seasonal trauma. More