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      In ‘Duster,’ the Cars Are in the Driver’s Seat

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      This homage to high-octane 1970s shows like “Starsky and Hutch” required plenty of cars to drive, race and crash. Here’s how they found them.Ted Moser would love to say that no muscle cars were harmed in the making of “Duster,” a new series from J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan, premiering on Max on Thursday. But Moser, the picture car coordinator for the show, knows better.A homage to 1970s series like ”The Dukes of Hazzard” and “Starsky and Hutch,” “Duster” cruises around with Jim, played by Josh Holloway, a driver for a Phoenix mob boss. The show is set in 1972, when the cars were wide, the engines were big and the seatbelts were mostly decorative.Cars play a role in nearly any period piece set in the last century or so. But in “Duster,” which derives its name from a fastback Plymouth coupe with a logo inspired by the Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil, they are very much the stars. Four different vehicles play the title car and scores of other makes and models are sprinkled throughout the series. Moser and teams of mechanics and scenic artists source these cars, then restore, modify and in many cases wing, ding and faux-rust them until they are period appropriate. A few are subsequently crashed, even totaled.“Yeah,” Moser said in a recent phone interview, “that always makes me sad.”Television doesn’t lack for scene-stealing vehicles: the General Lee, KITT, the Batmobile, the Mystery Machine. Sometimes these vehicles are built wholesale or, in the case of cartoons, simply imagined. More often they need to be sourced.Because most studios no longer maintain dedicated car lots and warehouses, producers hire picture car coordinators to source and supervise a fleet. These men (they are almost always men) are car aficionados with deep networks among retailers, collectors and hobbyists. Like casting directors, they know how to find a star, albeit one with four wheels.Josh Holloway stars as an outlaw getaway driver with ulterior motives.James Van Evers/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

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      Colbert Thinks the Nickname ‘Lady Giuliani’ Suits Jeanine Pirro

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      Colbert said President Trump’s latest appointment from the Fox News roster “drank a whole bottle of champagne, and then someone told her the news.”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.‘Lady Giuliani’Last Thursday, President Trump said he had chosen the Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro as the interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C.Stephen Colbert told his viewers on Monday that they might recognize Pirro from “Judge Jeanine,” where she “promoted voter-fraud claims, compared Jan. 6 rioters to Revolutionary War soldiers, and got pulled briefly from the network after making Islamophobic comments.”“She was later reinstated after Fox realized they didn’t care.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“And I’m sure she’s excited. I heard on Friday night, she drank a whole bottle of champagne, and then someone told her the news.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“President Trump last week named Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as the interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. Well, she is always up for a case.” — SETH MEYERS“Pirro has also come under fire for pleading guilty for speeding after driving 119 miles per hour in a 65 zone and was forced to deny accusations of being drunk on air. It’s not great when Washington’s top attorney can best be described as ‘Lady Giuliani.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Trump announced the news on Truth Social, saying, ‘Pirro is considered one of the top district attorneys in the history of the state of New York. She is in a class by herself.’ That class? Court-mandated traffic school.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Pirro is the 23rd current or former Fox News employee hired by the Trump White House. If you work at Fox News right now and you haven’t been offered a job by this administration, you must be thinking, ‘Does he, like, hate me?’” — SETH MEYERSThe Punchiest Punchlines (Thieving on a Jet Plane Edition)“The White House said that the royal family of Qatar is giving President Trump a $400 million luxury jet that he will use as Air Force One, and then keep once he leaves office. Everyone’s rightfully focused on the plane, but to me the big headline is that he’ll eventually leave office.” — JIMMY FALLON“Yeah, the 89-passenger luxury plane has wood finishes, custom carpets and gold walls. The only thing it doesn’t have is a way to safely land at Newark airport.” — JIMMY FALLONWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,’ Plus 6 Things to Watch on TV This Week

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      The reality show returns to Hulu, while AppleTV+ debuts a new sci-fi series.Between streaming and cable, there is a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that are airing or streaming this week, May 12-18. Details and times are subject to change.Sexy!First there was #MomTok, and then came “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” a reality series following a group of TikTok-famous moms who are either practicing Mormons or are in the community. The first season was a hit and became Hulu’s top-watched unscripted series in 2024. Now the ladies from Utah are ready for more dirty sodas, baby daddy drama and rehashing of the swinging scandal. Joining the cast is Miranda McWhorter, who was involved in the original TikTok drama that popularized the group. Add some coconut creamer to your Dr Pepper, read up on the Book of Mormon, and pour your coffee down the drain because Taylor Frankie Paul, Jen Affleck, Demi Engemann and the others are so back. Streaming Thursday on Hulu.Why are Chad Michael Murray and Scott Patterson in Nova Scotia, Canada? Because “Sullivan’s Crossing” is back for a third season, of course. The series follows the neurosurgeon Maggie Sullivan (Morgan Kohan) who fled to the small town that her father, Sully (Patterson), lives in to get away from a work-related scandal. Now, three years later, Maggie and Cal (Murray) are officially an item, and the trio are dealing with the aftermath of a diner fire from the Season 2 cliffhanger. It’s about to be cottage season in Canada, and this show perfectly sets those vibes. Wednesday at 8 p.m. on the CW.The Ryan Murphy series “Doctor Odyssey” has left viewers with lots of questions: Was it all a fever dream? Why is this cruise ship equipped with a CT machine? How can we clone Joshua Jackson in real life? It is unclear whether any of these questions will be answered in this week’s finale. The show — which follows the lives of a doctor and two nurses in charge of a cruise ship’s infirmary who spend more time canoodling, drinking and relaxing in the hot tub than doing any actual work — has covered orca attacks, mistaken pregnancies and the dangers of a raw diet. During the season (or series, ABC has yet to renew the show) finale, Max (Jackson) deboards the ship and, needless to say, several natural disasters strike. Thursday at 9 p.m. on ABC and streaming the next day on Hulu.Thrilling!Let’s set the scene for the new thriller series “Duster”: The year is 1972, we’re in the Southwest and Rachel Hilson plays the F.B.I.’s first Black female agent. With Josh Holloway’s character at her side as a getaway driver, the two go on a mission to break up a growing crime syndicate. Of note, this is J.J. Abrams’s first co-writing gig in six years, since “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” Thursday at 9 p.m. on Max.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2, Episode 5 Recap: Once Upon a Time

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      Dina fills in some blanks about her past. Ellie finds the first of her intended targets.‘The Last of Us’ Season 2, Episode 5Early in this week’s episode of “The Last of Us,” Dina tells Ellie a story about what her life was like when she was 8 years old, surviving the apocalypse in a cabin in a sparsely populated forest north of Santa Fe, N.M. One day back then, Dina grabbed a gun and went for a walk, without permission. When she returned, she found a raider in their house and her mother and sister dead.She killed the intruder — the first person she ever killed. Ever since, Dina has wondered what would have happened if she had been home when the raider arrived. Would she have been forced to watch him beat her family to death?There are different conclusions we could draw from all this. On the one hand, Dina suggests her experience helps her empathize with Ellie’s decision to hunt down Abby. Dina knows that if she had not killed her family’s murderer right away, she would have tracked him down until the job was done.But was her in-the-moment act of vengeance “justice,” exactly? Or just survival? Dina says that even if her family had hurt the raider’s family first, they would not have deserved to die the way they did; and she says that Joel did not deserve to be brutally slain, no matter what he did. Dina never proposes this directly — and would maybe disagree strongly with I am about to say — but the logical endpoint of her argument is that no one “deserves” to be killed. The act of taking a life should be a necessity, not a notion.Dina concludes her monologue by giving Ellie a choice, to press on or head home. Interestingly, Dina insists that there is “no right answer,” which is subtly different from “no wrong answer.” (It’s as if she were saying that all of their choices are equally cursed.) Anyway, Ellie sees only one option, so the mission continues.This week’s episode is ripe with bad vibes. For one thing, this is now the third week in a row that we have spent in Seattle, and after the variety of locations and stories that helped distinguish “The Last of Us” Season 1 from other end-times TV dramas, a certain exhausting repetitiveness is starting to set in here. The story feels a bit stuck.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘S.N.L.’: Toasting Moms and Toasted Trump Appointees

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      Cecily Strong returns as Jeanine Pirro, Walt Goggins shows off his clogging, and a dope new pope appears in the 50th season’s penultimate episode.If you’re going to celebrate the election of a new pope, you might as well have some sacramental wine, too.Cecily Strong returned to “Saturday Night Live” in a guest appearance to reprise her role as the Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro — and to douse Colin Jost, her former Weekend Update desk mate, in alcohol. Alcohol that emanated directly from her own mouth.How the opening sketch of this weekend’s “S.N.L.” broadcast (which was hosted by Walton Goggins and featured the musical guest Arcade Fire) arrived at this place will take a moment to explain.The sketch began with what looked like a traditional Mother’s Day tribute, with the cast members Kenan Thompson, Bowen Yang and Marcello Hernández singing an affectionate serenade to their real-life moms, who joined them onstage.But no: This was just a setup for James Austin Johnson to enter the scene as President Trump, holding forth in free-association style on the past week’s news.“There’s a new pope from Chicago,” Johnson said, noting the Roman Catholic Church’s selection of Robert Francis Prevost, who took the name Pope Leo XIV.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Government Cheese’ Star David Oyelowo Considers Oprah ‘Chosen Family’

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      They met years ago while working on “The Butler,” the “Government Cheese” star said. Now, “I call her Mama, she calls me Son O.”“Government Cheese” began as what David Oyelowo called “a beautiful experiment.” He had long admired the fantastical storytelling of Wes Anderson and the Coen brothers. But he hadn’t seen that applied to a Black family.Then the filmmaker Paul Hunter approached him about playing a version of his own father — an ex-con eager to reunite with his family and make his fortune — in a short film with absurdist elements set in the San Fernando Valley in 1969. Eventually they spun it into a television series for Apple TV+, taking care to leave that tone intact.“We were very keen to make something that we knew might not be for everyone, but was very unique in its nature,” said Oyelowo, who is an executive producer on the show in addition to its lead. “It’s very rare that people of color get to make things where they are not feeling the need to explain their existence.”Oyelowo lives in the San Fernando Valley, where the series was shot, which meant there was little danger of violating the “no more than two weeks apart” rule that he and his wife, Jessica, established early in their relationship. And which they’ve broken only once, by 11 hours.In a video interview, Oyelowo elaborated on why his rambunctious dogs, going to the movies and Oprah Winfrey are essential to his life. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.My BibleI was brought up in the church, but it never really meant much to me because I was sort of piggybacking my parents’ faith. Then I had what can only be called a spiritual awakening at 16. And all of those stories that I grew up reading suddenly took on different meaning and have remained that way. It’s where I learned the true definition of love.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Rediscovered Thomas the Tank Engine Pilot Is Released

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      The episode, from 1983, was found in storage by accident. It was restored and made available for viewing for the first time on Friday.Thomas the Tank Engine notices a funny smell. He breaks a rule, has a mishap and gets stuck. He is rescued and learns a lesson. Ringo Starr provides the narration.If you have ever seen any of the more than 500 episodes of the children’s show “Thomas & Friends,” you might imagine you have seen it before. But you really have not, because this scene is from the newly rediscovered pilot episode, which has been restored and was made available for viewing for the first time on Friday.The episode, filmed in 1983 and titled “Down the Mine,” was found accidentally in storage, Ian McCue, a producer of the series for a decade, told the BBC.Ian McCue, a producer, examined the newly discovered film.MattelThe episode was pieced together from multiple film stripsMattelThe five-minute episode was pieced together from multiple 35-millimeter film strips. The picture and sound were cleaned up, and newly composed music was added.“I think there’s a sort of a lovely charm and innocence about it, and I think even as a pilot, as a test piece, it still has that lovely, classic, timeless story to it, and the voices, everything is just so delightful,” Mr. McCue said.For the uninitiated, Thomas is a cheerful blue locomotive with an expressive face who first appeared in British children’s books by the Rev. W. Awdry. The character and his fellow locomotives, like Percy (green) and James (red), rose to new levels of popularity when they were animated for the popular program, which premiered in 1984.The show became a favorite of children and parents alike, many of whom were drawn to its relaxed rhythms. “Children live these days in a fast-paced world, but I don’t think children really change,” the producer Britt Allcroft, who brought the characters to television, said in a 1995 BBC documentary. “They need in their lives gentleness, comfort.”Clips of the show were repackaged for a PBS show, “Shining Time Station,” starting in 1989. Toys, movies and a theme park followed, and humble Thomas became a billion-dollar business.Mr. Starr was the original narrator of the series. George Carlin, Alec Baldwin, Pierce Brosnan and others followed.Ringo Starr, fourth from left, was the original narrator of “Thomas & Friends.”MattelA vast majority of the many characters were originally male — and, apparently, white. More recently, the show made efforts to diversify, adding new engines like Yong Bao of China and Ashima of India.Loyal fans of the series of all ages were thrilled by news that the pilot episode had been found, expressing eagerness to see the footage and amazement that it had been lost for so long. Enthusiasts on Reddit posted words like “finally,” “I’m so happy” and “let’s go!” punctuated by other words that Thomas and his friends would never utter.Once the restored episode was out, the reactions veered to softer sentiments. As one fan wrote, “Feels like being a kid again.”Thomas, cheerful as always.Mattel More

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      Late Night Celebrates the First American Pope

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      “We have an American pope and a Russian president,” Jimmy Kimmel said, calling it “an historic era.”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.‘New Pope, Who Dis?’Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected pope on Thursday, becoming the first American pope.“We have an American pope and a Russian president,” Jimmy Kimmel said. “Isn’t it incredible?”“We have the first American pope. And let me just say, as an American, are you sure about this? We don’t really have the gravitas that you associate with pope-iness. We’re less ‘somber procession’ and more ‘monster truck rally.’” — DESI LYDIC“I just think it’s just a little bit weird that the holiest man in the world probably knows all the words to the Chili’s ‘Baby Back Ribs’ song.” — DESI LYDIC“The Pope Mobile is now a Ford F-250 with truck nuts.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“You can tell he’s American ’cause he stepped out on the Vatican balcony and said, ‘New pope, who dis?’” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (Another Leo Edition)“They make him pick a name. He chose Leo XIV, which is a shame because there have been 13 other Leos. We’ve never had even one Pope Bob, which would have been pretty great.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“How have there been so many popes named Leo? Leo doesn’t even sound like a Pope name. Sounds more like the altar boy who got high and ate all the communion wafers.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Yep, he may be the new pope, but to his friends back in Chicago, he’ll always be ‘Bobby Bratwurst.’” — JIMMY FALLON“From now on, the pope is going to sound like this. [imitating Chicago accent] Hey, dere, it’s yer buddy Leo, the deep dish papa. Just talked to God, and not even he can help da White Sox. Sorry. First order of business, I will be canonizing Michael Jordan. Now let’s end by saying daaa prayers.” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Bits Worth WatchingThe Colombian superstar Shakira played “Box of Lies” with Jimmy Fallon on Thursday’s “Tonight Show.”Also, Check This OutLovie Simone in “Forever,” a new adaptation of the Judy Blume novel created by Mara Brock Akil for Netflix.Elizabeth Morris/NetflixAn all-Black cast stars in the new Netflix series “Forever,” adapted from Judy Blume’s 1970 novel of the same name. More