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      What’s on TV This Week: ‘Phoenix Rising’ and ‘Welcome to Flatch’

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      A two-part documentary about Evan Rachel Wood’s activism around domestic violence debuts on HBO. And a new comedy series begins on Fox.Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, March 14-20. Details and times are subject to change.MondayTHE JULIA CHILD CHALLENGE 9 p.m. on Food Network. A group of talented amateur chefs compete to recreate Julia Child dishes — and to cook up their own Child-inspired recipes — in this new reality competition series. The winner receives comprehensive courses at the French-cooking institution Le Cordon Bleu, where Child once trained.TuesdayPHOENIX RISING 9 p.m. on HBO. This new two-part documentary looks at the performer Evan Rachel Wood’s advocacy on behalf of survivors of domestic violence. The program covers Wood’s work on the Phoenix Act — a California bill passed in 2019 that lengthened the statute of limitations for domestic abuse felonies and expanded training for police officers working on domestic violence cases — and Wood’s experience of publicly stating, in early 2021, that the musician Marilyn Manson had abused her. Amy Berg (“An Open Secret”) directs.WednesdayShahadi Wright Joseph and Winston Duke in “Us.”Claudette Barius/Universal PicturesUS (2019) 4:15 p.m. on FXM. “Nope,” the latest movie from the horror auteur Jordan Peele, had its first trailer released last month, offering a look at the setting for its supernatural story: a ranch in a dry, isolated slice of California. Peele’s previous movie, “Us,” was set in a wetter, saltier part of the state: Monterey Bay, at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. In “Us,” Peele focuses on a four-person family that encounters their doppelgängers while on vacation. (The cast includes Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Evan Alex and Shahadi Wright Joseph.) The results, Manohla Dargis wrote in her review for The New York Times, are “messy, brilliant, sobering, even bleak.”OLD HENRY (2021) 6:15 p.m. on Showtime 2. Tim Blake Nelson stars as a farmer whose grizzled looks conceal a very particular set of skills in this throwback western. The plot kicks into a gallop after Nelson’s character, Henry, stumbles on a wounded man (Scott Haze) lying near a satchel of money. Henry and his son (Gavin Lewis) take the man in, inadvertently putting themselves between him and a trio of brutes. The film “makes a solid, honorable go of proving once again that the foursquare western isn’t dead,” Ben Kenigsberg wrote in his review for The Times, “though in paying homage to its forebears, it inevitably stands in their very long shadows.”ThursdaySeann William Scott in “Welcome to Flatch.”Brownie Harris/FoxWELCOME TO FLATCH 9:30 p.m. on Fox. A minister who used to be part of a Christian boy band, a lovesick newspaper editor, and a pair of cousins whose claim to fame involves bear spray and tears are among the weird characters in this new comedy series, set in a fictional Midwestern town called Flatch. Thursday night’s debut episode, which revolves around a town fair, was directed by Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids”), an executive producer of the series.FridayVIOLET (2021) 8 p.m. on Showtime. In “Violet,” her directorial debut, Justine Bateman brandishes a potpourri of cinematic tricks — voice-overs, overlaid text — to delve into the anxious psyche of a film production executive played by Olivia Munn. Munn’s character, Violet, lives in Los Angeles, but she’s often living in her head: As she goes through her routines, a trio of internal voices that Violet calls “the committee” (one of which is voiced by Justin Theroux) bears down on her. In other words, her self-consciousness comes to life. The highlight here, Jeannette Catsoulis wrote in her review for The Times, is Munn, who gives a “terrific performance,” even as the film at large “experiments with so many cinematic frills and fancies that Munn’s touching work is too often obscured.”SaturdayMichael Gandolfini, left, Alessandro Nivola in “The Many Saints of Newark.” Barry Wetcher/Warner Bros.THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK (2021) 7 p.m. on HBO. Michael Gandolfini, the son of the actor James Gandolfini, plays a younger version of his father’s most famous character in this “Sopranos” prequel. That character is, of course, Tony Soprano, the overwhelmed mob boss, father and husband whose middle-age troubles were the focus of the original show’s six seasons. This movie is an origin story that imagines a teenage Tony, and his descent into organized crime. It’s also an interesting opportunity to see a young actor grapple with his father’s legacy. “I remember asking my dad, maybe at 13, what the hell is this? Why do I hear about this all the time? What is this about?” Michael Gandolfini said in an interview with The Times last year. “He’s like, ‘It’s about this mobster who goes to therapy and I don’t know, that’s about it.’”SundayBEFORE WE DIE 10 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). This British remake of a Swedish series centers on a police detective (Lesley Sharp) whose partner — professional and romantic — goes missing under mysterious circumstances. The hunt for answers leads her to a Croatian organized-crime family, but is complicated by her son’s (Patrick Gibson) own work as an undercover informant.WHEN WE WERE KINGS (1996) 10:15 p.m. on TCM. Spike Lee and Norman Mailer are among the interviewees in this Oscar-winning documentary about the 1974 boxing match known as the Rumble in the Jungle, in which Muhammad Ali pulled an upset against George Foreman. The director Leon Gast spent about two decades making the film — though the way Gast once told it, Ali — a famous virtuoso of braggadocio whose self-confidence is on full, over-the-top display here — might deserve a co-directing credit. “One day,” Gast said in an interview with The Times in 1997, “Muhammad told us: ‘In the morning when I run, I come around that corner with the sun and the river behind me. Put your camera over there. It’ll be a great shot.’ He was right. It was a great shot.” More

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      How to Watch the Critics Choice Awards 2022: Date, Time and Streaming

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      It could be a big night for “Belfast” and “West Side Story” — and might finally bring some clarity to the best actress race at the Oscars.If Peter Dinklage’s Cyrano stirred your soul, you’re a fan of Lady Gaga’s over-the-top accent in “House of Gucci,” or you fell hard for “Belfast” cutie Jude Hill, you’ll want to catch the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday night to see if any of them get their due after they were snubbed in the Oscar nominations last month.Postponed from their original Jan. 9 date, the 27th annual Critics Choice Awards will now take place on two continents, with the main ceremony at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles and a simultaneous, late-night celebration at the Savoy Hotel in London. That is the organization’s way of dealing with the fact that the EE British Academy Film Awards, or BAFTAs, are the same night. And with less than two weeks before the Oscars, the outcome of the Critics Choice may provide some clarity on the most hotly contested races at the Academy Awards.Will Jessica Chastain or Penélope Cruz rise to the top of the best actress pool? Can Troy Kotsur continue building Oscar momentum by notching a win in the best supporting actor category? Will “Belfast” or “West Side Story,” both of which have a pack-leading 11 nominations, pull off a win for best ensemble?There’s drama on the TV side, too, with Emmy favorite “Mare of Easttown” squaring off against “The Underground Railroad” and “WandaVision” for best limited series, and contenders like “Squid Game,” “Succession” and “Yellowjackets” duking it out for best drama series.Here’s a look at how and what to watch for on Sunday night (and, if you have five hours, how to watch both the Critics Choice Awards and the BAFTAs).What time do the Critics Choice Awards start?The three-hour broadcast begins Sunday at 7 p.m. Eastern simultaneously on the CW and TBS. It will be delayed on the West Coast, so check your local listings. If you’ve cut the cord, you can also stream it on Hulu with live TV, FuboTV and Sling TV.Is there a red carpet?Yes. Your best bet for catching all the looks is social media, but many CW stations will be broadcasting a red-carpet show before the ceremony. Check your local listings.Who votes on the awards?Critics of course; also entertainment journalists. They’re all members of the Critics Choice Association, which has a little more than 500 members.Who will be hosting?Taye Diggs, the “Empire” actor and Broadway star has been the host for the last three years. This time he will team up with Nicole Byer, a judge on the Netflix competition series “Nailed It!,” to lead the show from Los Angeles.Who will be presenting?Of course, there’ll be the usual slate of film and television notables — Ava DuVernay, Carey Mulligan, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Mayim Bialik, to name just a few — but look for some big stars from the sports world this year, too. Serena Williams, whose story is featured in the biopic “King Richard,” and Sean McVay, the Los Angeles Rams coach whose team won the Super Bowl last month, will also hand out awards.Who will receive special awards?The Critics Choice Association gives out the #SeeHer Award each year, which honors a woman who pushes “boundaries on changing stereotypes” and furthers “authentic portrayals of women across the entertainment landscape.” This year’s honoree is Halle Berry, who 20 years ago became the first — and only — Black woman to win an Academy Award for best actress. The comedian Billy Crystal will also receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.What should I watch for?With the Oscars just around the corner, on March 27, films will be looking to bolster their cases for best picture — or make them. “Belfast,” whose cast hasn’t taken home many prizes during awards season so far, could mount a best picture comeback if it wins big at the Critics Choice Awards. The best actress category is once again a tossup — as it has been at every awards show this year — with the potential for Jessica Chastain to build momentum after her big win at the Screen Actors Guild Awards for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.”On the television side, the hit Netflix series “Squid Game” is up for both best foreign language series and best drama series, though it’ll have stiff competition in the latter category from “Succession,” which leads all shows with eight nominations.Who do we think will win?Ariana DeBose, who played Anita in the Steven Spielberg remake of “West Side Story,” is essentially a sure thing for best supporting actress. In the supporting actor category, it’s a two-man race between Kotsur and Kodi Smit-McPhee of “The Power of the Dog.” And best picture? It’s probably between “Belfast” and “The Power of the Dog.”Why are the Critics Choice Awards happening the same night as the BAFTAs?Well, the BAFTAs got here first. But after the pandemic forced the Critics Choice Association to scrap the January date, Joey Berlin, the organization’s chief executive, said at the time that there was only one Sunday between the Super Bowl and the Oscars that the show could move to and still honor contractual obligations with networks, sponsors and venues.Aargh, I want to watch both!You’re in luck! (Thank you, time difference.) The BAFTAs, which will take place at 5 p.m. London time at the Royal Albert Hall and be hosted by Rebel Wilson, will be streamable for American audiences on BritBox beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern, giving you plenty of time to watch before the Critics Choice Awards.Approximate time investment: five hours. More

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      Jussie Smollett, Once an ‘Empire’ Star, Is Now in the Cook County Jail

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      On Thursday evening, Mr. Smollett began serving a five-month sentence for falsely reporting a hate crime, a conviction he plans to appeal.It was an extraordinary ending to an unusual hearing.Jussie Smollett, sentenced to five months in a Chicago jail, stood up, defiantly declared his innocence and repeatedly warned the room that he was not suicidal and, if anything should befall him while incarcerated, it would not be his own doing.Then, with his right fist raised, Mr. Smollett was led off to become likely the most famous of the 6,000 inmates at the Cook County Jail.The jail primarily houses defendants awaiting trial, but also convicts serving shorter sentences, like Mr. Smollett, 39, who was booked into Division 8, a facility that is used to administer medical and mental health treatment, as well as house inmates who require protective custody.Mr. Smollett has a private cell, which is monitored by security cameras and an officer stationed at the entrance, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. He will be allowed “substantial time” outside of his cell to talk on the phone, watch television and interact with staff members in common areas, but only when other detainees are not present, the office said.Judge James B. Linn, who presided over the trial at which the actor was convicted of falsely reporting a hate crime, had ordered that Mr. Smollett serve his jail term under protective custody.Mr. Smollett’s lawyer Nenye Uche had said after Thursday’s hearing that his client was vulnerable and deserved special protective measures. “All you need to do is log onto various media, social media, to see some of the nasty things said about him,” Mr. Uche said. “Of course someone like that should be in protective custody.”Supporters have said the actor is particularly vulnerable to being targeted because he is a gay man and a recognizable celebrity.Understand the Jussie Smollett CaseThe actor Jussie Smollett was found guilty in December of falsely reporting that he had been the victim of a racist and homophobic assault in 2019.Timeline: The case began with the actor’s police report and led to a trial in which he was accused of staging the attack himself.Smollett’s Testimony: Mr. Smollett was self-deprecating and animated as he sought to convince a Chicago jury he was the victim of a real attack.What the Evidence Shows: Explore some of the documents and security camera footage related to the case.His Sentence: The actor was sentenced to five months in jail on March 10. His supporters had made impassioned pleas for leniency ahead of the sentencing hearing.In arguing for leniency at the hearing, Mr. Smollett’s lawyers had emphasized evidence of Mr. Smollett’s good character and said they supported his contention of innocence, urging he be given a new trial or, at the least, probation. They did not mention in their arguments a concern about the specific realities of incarceration at the Chicago jail, which some social justice advocates have described as having a “culture of brutality and violence” in the highest security units.Mr. Smollett’s unit is not among those cited.Criminal defense experts said they thought the jail would likely do everything it could to isolate Mr. Smollett from other prisoners, considering his fame and potential to disrupt day-to-day activities there, which for many inmates include communal meals in the commissary.“They’re going to put him wherever they would have the least amount of disruptions to the rest of the facility,” said Steve Greenberg, a defense attorney in Chicago who represents the singer R. Kelly against sex crime charges in Illinois. Mr. Kelly was once held in the division where Mr. Smollett resides.Mr. Smollett’s lawyers had asked the judge to defer Mr. Smollett’s sentence until after they have appealed his conviction. But Judge Linn swiftly denied their request. In addition to the jail time, Mr. Smollett was sentenced to more than two years of probation, plus a fine of $25,000 and restitution of more than $120,000 to offset the city’s cost in investigating the case.The maximum sentence allowed for the offense for which Mr. Smollett was charged, felony disorderly conduct, is three years in prison, but many of those convicted are given probation. Judge Linn cited several factors, including Mr. Smollett’s testimony on the witness stand, which the judge described as “pure perjury,” in explaining why he ordered some jail time.Sam Mendenhall, a prosecutor on the case, said on Friday that he believed Mr. Smollett would not have the option of reducing his jail time for good behavior because Judge Linn ordered it as a condition of probation.Mr. Smollett in a photo taken after he was incarcerated Thursday. He was sentenced to five months at the Cook County jail. Cook County Sheriff’s Office, via Associated PressThe Cook County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Thursday that Mr. Smollett would receive a “comprehensive medical, mental health and security assessment.” Mr. Smollett’s sentencing hearing at Leighton Criminal Courthouse was unusual in its length — about five hours — and its intensity, with the defense, the prosecution and even the judge making impassioned speeches about the case.Mr. Smollett’s supporters, including his 92-year-old grandmother and his former boss at a nonprofit organization, made glowing remarks about his commitment to social justice as they pleaded for leniency.In his own extensive remarks, Judge Linn took another tack, sharply condemning Mr. Smollett as a narcissistic attention seeker who wasted precious police hours with his “stunt” and made it more difficult for real hate crime victims to be taken seriously.“Your very name has become an adverb for lying,” Judge Linn said. “And I cannot imagine what could be worse than that.”Mr. Uche later said he was “offended” by the remarks, and outside the courtroom, one of Mr. Smollett’s brothers, Jocqui Smollett, sharply criticized the judge.“He chastised my brother,” Mr. Smollett said. “He does not deserve this. He was attacked.”Cook County Jail has drawn criticism for conditions in some of its units, but Mr. Smollett will be held in protective custody by order of the judge who sentenced him. Kamil Krzaczynski/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe police believed initially that Mr. Smollett, best known for starring in the music-industry drama “Empire,” had been the victim of a hate crime when he reported on Jan. 29, 2019, that he had been attacked by two men who hurled racist and homophobic slurs at him, put a rope around his neck like a noose and shouted “this is MAGA country.” But prosecutors presented evidence that Mr. Smollett had orchestrated the hoax himself, including testimony from two brothers, Abimbola Osundairo and Olabinjo Osundairo, who said they had mildly assaulted Mr. Smollett according to his directions.The defense had argued that the brothers carried out the attack to scare Mr. Smollett into hiring them as his security detail. Mr. Smollett’s appeal is likely to follow the arguments raised by his lawyers Thursday, in which they cited what they described as errors by the judge and the prosecutors, and suggested Mr. Smollett’s case had already been adjudicated once and he could not be punished twice — a violation of the legal concept of double jeopardy.In 2019, when prosecutors dropped the original charges, Mr. Smollett did some community service and surrendered his $10,000 bond payment, punishment that seemed insufficient to some critics.Kim Foxx, the state’s attorney whose office negotiated that initial outcome, sharply criticized the prosecutors who handled the second indictment in an op-ed for The Chicago Sun-Times on Thursday, calling it a “kangaroo prosecution” and “mob justice.” (After an investigation of Ms. Foxx’s office, Daniel K. Webb, the special prosecutor who handled the case, found the office had abused its discretion, but did not violate the law, in deciding to drop the charges.)Lori Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago, struck a very different tone, saying in a statement that the city had been “vindicated” by the judge’s sentence.Mr. Webb said after the sentencing that he was struck by the extent to which Mr. Smollett was unwilling to express any remorse for the damage he had done.“Again today,” he said, “after he’s been convicted by a jury of five felony counts, after he heard a judge today excoriate his conduct as being reprehensible, he still stood up in the courtroom and insisted that he’s not going to ever admit or accept any responsibility for what he did.” More

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      Rupert Grint of ‘Harry Potter’ Gets His Own Glasses

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      The former child actor, who stars in the creepy drama “Servant,” shops at Moscot.Rupert Grint covered his left eye with his hand and attempted to read the top few lines. “E, D, F, C, E, F,” he said slowly.“Close!” said Marilyn Blumengold, a sales associate at Moscot, the eyewear shop on the Lower East Side.This was on a recent snowy afternoon. Mr. Grint, currently shooting the fourth season of the Apple TV+ horror drama “Servant,” had driven in for the weekend from his temporary home in Philadelphia to take in the sights and maybe also have his eyes checked. He had noticed a blur in the right one, he said.But Moscot, which has been in business for more than 100 years, didn’t have an optometrist on-site on Sundays, so Mr. Grint, 33, improvised his own test, standing about 20 feet away from an eye chart at the back of the store.“Almost 20/20,” Ms. Blumengold said encouragingly.Satisfied for the moment, Mr. Grint turned his attention to picking an eyeglass frame, moving through the store shyly, unassumingly, never asking for help, but also never declining it.“I’m a very private person, an introvert,” he said. He slouched through the store in a black Issey Miyake suit that a stylist had picked out for the outing. “Strange pajamas,” he called them. “Surprisingly, I think they look good.” His red hair flopped over the top of some frames.Mr. Grint seemed overwhelmed. “There’s just so much choice,” he said, as he surveyed the rows of display cases. He said it twice. “It’s quite ‘Harry Potter,’” he added without any prompting. “Like choosing a wand.”Mr. Grint stars in the “Servant,” alongside Lauren Ambrose, left, and Toby Kebbell. The show is in its third season.Apple TV+Mr. Grint should know. He starred as Ron Weasley in all eight “Harry Potter” films. (Ron’s wand? Willow. With a core of unicorn hair.) Ms. Blumengold may or may not have known that — at one point she steered him toward a pair of round black glasses, a $300 model called the Zolman, which looked very Harry-esque.“No,” Mr. Grint said politely.When the “Harry Potter” films ended, Mr. Grint was worried that he may not make it as an adult actor. He knew how to play Ron, Harry’s brave, anxious sidekick. He didn’t know if he could play anyone else. “I definitely did think, ‘Is it too late to pick something else?’” he said.He bought a pink-and-white ice cream van, which he drove back to his family home just north of London on his last day of shooting. He thought briefly that he could make a go of that.But after taking a year off, he tried acting again. He had been sent a lot of “Potter” adjacent material — more sidekicks — but he held on for edgier, more serious, more adult work. He took a part in a Jez Butterworth play, enjoying the discipline of theater, and starred in the Crackle crime dramedy “Snatch.”His most significant post-“Potter” role has been in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Servant,” a creepy drama on Apple TV+ about a Philadelphia couple who hire a nanny to care for a baby that is actually a therapy doll. (The real baby had died in an accident.) Mr. Grint plays Julian, the baby’s supercilious uncle. “It’s quite a difficult subject, especially if you’ve got a baby,” he said.Halfway through the series, in the spring of 2020, his partner, the actress Georgia Groome, gave birth to their daughter, Wednesday G. Grint. “Having a child midway through definitely made me understand what a loss that would be,” he said.Wednesday had made him into a bit of a hypochondriac, he added. (Working on a show in which terrible things happen to bodies in nearly every episode — self-harm, self-flagellation, being buried alive — probably hasn’t helped.)“That’s why I wanted to have an eye test,” he said. “I’m slowly becoming more aware that there’s lots of moving parts in the body.”This season’s finale airs on March 25, but Mr. Grint has already begun filming the show’s fourth and final season. And, no, he has no idea what the twist will be. “It’s quite a thrill to work that way.” (It must be. He has signed on for Mr. Shyamalan’s next film, “Knock at the Cabin.”)Ms. Blumengold started him off with a classic Moscot model, the Lemtosh, a brown acetate oval frame with a slight 1950s vibe. Many of the frames have Yiddish names, though “Lemtosh” just sounds like one. Mr. Grint looked confused as he squinted at himself in the mirror. “It changes your appearance,” he said. “It changes your personality.” Into what, he wasn’t sure. But he felt that he could already see a bit better.“Very nice,” Ms. Blumengold said. “Very handsome.”“I do struggle with making decisions,” Mr. Grint said, as he tried on a pair of sunglasses.Mark Sommerfeld for The New York TimesThen he tried on a dozen more acetate frames, toggling between rounder models including the Genug (Yiddish for “enough”) and Frankie, and rectangular ones like Kitzel (“tickle”) and Shindig, a retro unisex model. Most cost around $300.“I do struggle with making decisions,” he said. “It’s quite a responsibility, choosing.”After 40 minutes, he settled on the Yukel (“buffoon”) a clubmaster style with a thick tortoiseshell browline and a thinner gunmetal bottom.Ms. Blumengold created a customer profile and added it to his file, in case he does end up needing eyeglasses. He could always call in his eye test results and have the glasses made.But Mr. Grint didn’t want to leave empty-handed, so he set his sights on the sunglasses. After flirting with the Boychik (a term of endearment for a little boy), he turned back to the Lemtosh, this one in brown acetate frames and dark brown lens. After all, Mr. Grint is now a man.As he waited for Ms. Blumengold to box the glasses up, he popped outside for a quick vape hit. When he returned, she handed him a chamois cloth to clean them with. “This is your last Yiddish word for the day,” she said. “‘Shmatte,’ a rag.” More

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      Late Night Casts Doubt on the Russian-Ukrainian Peace Talks

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      Trevor Noah warned viewers not to get their hopes up: “Not only did Russia not agree to end the war; it wouldn’t even admit that it started a war.”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.Give Peace a Fighting ChanceRussia and Ukraine held their highest-level peace talks on Thursday since the war began.“But please do not get your hopes up,” Trevor Noah said. “Not only did Russia not agree to end the war; it wouldn’t even admit that it started a war.”“They met in Turkey. Isn’t it just nice to see Russia going somewhere where they’re actually invited?” — JAMES CORDEN“Yeah, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, was asked if they planned to invade any other countries, and his answer was, ‘We are not planning to attack other countries, and we did not attack Ukraine,’ which is obviously a lie, and also not reassuring for the rest of Europe.” — TREVOR NOAH“And, by the way, if Lavrov is denying that Russia is attacking Ukraine, then what’s he attending peace talks for? What, he wants Ukraine to stop blowing up Russian missiles with their maternity wards?” — TREVOR NOAH“I can’t even imagine how strange these meetings must be. It’d be like trying to have a conversation with someone who’s actively setting your house on fire.” — JAMES CORDEN“Do they get there and there’s small talk before they get into it: ‘Ah, yeah, that Russell Wilson trade is crazy. Anyway, we would love it if we could, you know, pump the brakes on the whole invasion thing.’” — JAMES CORDENThe Punchiest Punchlines (Parachuting Spiders Edition)“Apparently, there’s some spider invasion coming to the East Coast in the spring. Oh yeah, and scientists say they’re that the size of a child’s hand, and they can parachute from the sky. I love how scientists were like, ‘How should we describe the size?’ and they’re like, ‘Oh, I settled on a child’s hand.”’ — JIMMY FALLON“You know, sometimes I don’t understand nature. Why did it feel the need to create something like this, huh? Spiders that have parachutes and fly around? You know, with some things, you get why they exist, like how plants put oxygen into the atmosphere, and how birds evolve into chickens so we could make delicious sandwiches. But giant spiders? Was Mother Nature like, ‘People’s nightmares have become too boring; let’s spice things up’?” — TREVOR NOAH“You can’t even kill that thing with a regular shoe. Did you see the size? You probably need like a Shaq-sized shoe.” — TREVOR NOAH“And, by the way, if you think a giant spider is bad, wait until we see the giant pig the giant spider is gonna become best friends with.” — TREVOR NOAHThe Bits Worth WatchingDenzel Washington sat down with the Bodega Boys on “Desus & Mero.”Also, Check This OutFrom left, Georgina Campbell, Graham Dickson, Tom Stourton, Antonia Clarke and Joshua McGuire in “All My Friends Hate Me.”Super Ltd Things turn nasty when a peculiar stranger infiltrates a reunion of college pals in the new horror-comedy “All My Friends Hate Me.” More

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      Emilio Delgado, Luis on ‘Sesame Street’ for Four Decades, Dies at 81

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      The actor was a fixture on the groundbreaking educational program. His character’s wedding to Maria on the show in 1988 captivated children and their parents.Emilio Delgado, the actor who for more than four decades played Luis the handyman on the beloved children’s television show “Sesame Street,” died on Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 81.The cause was multiple myeloma, which Mr. Delgado had been battling since December 2020, his wife, Carole Delgado, said.Over a span of 44 years on “Sesame Street,” Mr. Delgado’s character was the owner of The Fix-It Shop, where he repaired any objects that needed fixing, like picture frames or giant toasters. Luis was joined in the shop by Maria, played by Sonia Manzano. After an on-screen courtship, the characters married in a widely viewed episode of the program in 1988.The marriage of Maria and Luis was cause for celebration among the children who were learning numbers and letters — and about worldly concepts like death and diversity — from “Sesame Street.” Parents dressed their children in their fancy clothes for viewing parties. Mothers cried as the ceremony unfolded.The union, which followed five months of hugging, serenading and pizza-sharing, was also a way to teach young children about love. The two characters were friends and partners at the shop for 10 years, but their feelings started to change when they cared for a sick kitten.“Since kids see love in terms of physical things like kissing, hugging, giving flowers, we showed Maria and Luis doing a lot of that,” Ms. Manzano, who also wrote for the show, told The New York Times in 1988.“We wanted to show a couple who are nice to each other and have fun together,” she said.Mr. Delgado had a long road to the show that would define his career. After “beating doors in Hollywood” for nine years, he got a call one day to audition for the show because it wanted a more diverse cast, Mr. Delgado said in a 2011 interview for the public television show “Up Close with Patsy Smullin.” He joined the cast in 1971, two years after the program premiered.“I was so excited, but as an actor I knew it was a job,” he said. “Maybe it would last a year, maybe two years. Maybe not even that long. But it was great. I had a job on television, on a major television show.”The program allowed Mr. Delgado to show off his singing in addition to acting. In the 2011 interview, Mr. Delgado said that music was his life. He would later perform with the band Pink Martini at venues like the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall.His love for music developed as a child in Mexico. “I just remember going to sleep to the sound of mariachis,” he said.Emilio Delgado was born on May 8, 1940, in Calexico, a California border town, to Emilio Delgado and Carmen Rodriguez Delgado. He had family he would live with across the border in Mexicali, Carole Delgado said.“He really lived biculturally,” she said, noting that he lived with grandparents and extended family in Mexico. “Because he was an American citizen, he would walk to Calexico every day for school. It wasn’t the border politics of today.”As a teenager, he moved to Glendale, Calif., where he explored his passion for music and theater. Mr. Delgado served six years in the California National Guard in the 1960s before attending California Institute of the Arts, where he was a student in the institution’s first theater class in 1970.When Mr. Delgado wasn’t performing on “Sesame Street,” two “Sesame Street” feature films and many live appearances, he acted in numerous popular shows, including “Hawaii Five-O,” “Falcon Crest,” “House of Cards,” “The Michael J. Fox Show” and “Lou Grant.”In 2018, Mr. Delgado began starring in “Quixote Nuevo,” Octavio Solis’s reimagining of “Don Quixote,” performing at the California Shakespeare Theater, Boston’s Hartford Stage and Alley Theatre in Houston, his family said.In addition to his wife, Mr. Delgado is survived by a daughter, Lauren Delgado; a son, Aram Delgado; and four siblings: Cesar Delgado, Edward Delgado, Martha Ledesma and Norma Vizcaino.Former Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City declared Oct. 15, 2019, “Emilio Delgado Day” at a celebration to honor Hispanic heritage.“At a time when, if you saw diversity on television, it often was with stereotypes, and not the good kind of stereotypes,” Mr. de Blasio said, “Emilio was one of the people who broke the mold, created a positive role model, for everyone, but particularly for children who didn’t get to see or hear people who looked like them and spoke like them.”Christine Chung More

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      Samuel L. Jackson and Walter Mosley Team Up for a Sci-Fi Fable

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      In a joint interview, the actor and writer discuss “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey,” their “fairy tale” about an old man negotiating dementia and family drama with the help of a wonder drug.Samuel L. Jackson made his name in the movies, Walter Mosley in literature. But when it was time for these two arts legends to collaborate, they knew television was the only medium that would work.“The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey,” a new limited series starring Jackson and written by Mosley, based on his 2010 novel, tells the story of an elderly Atlanta man with dementia and a family that wants his savings. Just when it looks like all Ptolemy has left is to count his remaining days, two people alter the course of his life. One is Robyn (Dominique Fishback), a teenage family friend who decides Ptolemy is worth taking care of. The other is a neurologist (Walton Goggins) working on a new drug that will bring back Ptolemy’s cognizance — but only for a short time, after which he’ll be worse off than ever (shades of the Daniel Keyes novel “Flowers for Algernon” and its film adaptation, “Charly”).In the series, Jackson’s title character reclaims his life with the help of a young caretaker played by Dominique Fishback.Hopper Stone/Apple TV+In his newfound lucidity, Ptolemy comes to terms with events and people from his past, including the one true love of his life, a beauty named Sensia (Cynthia Kaye McWilliams), and Coydog (Damon Gupton), a childhood mentor who left behind an unusual inheritance. As these figures come and go from his mind, Ptolemy also takes it upon himself to solve the murder of a beloved nephew (Omar Benson Miller), a task appropriate to Mosley’s bread-and-butter turf of crime fiction.Jackson and Mosley were also executive producers on the series, which premieres Friday on Apple TV+. The project was personal for both of them: Each has had loved ones who suffered from dementia. During a freewheeling video interview — Jackson was in London (where he’s filming the Marvel mini-series “Secret Invasion”), Mosley in Los Angeles — they discussed the fairy tale quality of “Ptolemy,” why television was the best option for the project, and how the story jumped across the country from Los Angeles to Atlanta, among other subjects. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.“It’s a fairy tale,” Jackson said of his new series. “In reality, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s or dementia, but we get one, however momentarily.”Erik Carter for The New York TimesWho is Ptolemy Grey?WALTER MOSLEY He’s all of us everywhere. This is a destination that either we reach ourselves in our own experience, or with people that we know and love and live with, as far as aging, dementia and death. These things impact everybody’s lives. It’s a great thing to have Sam taking it on and bringing it to a neighborhood that other people don’t seem to think about very much.SAMUEL L. JACKSON As based in reality as we want it to be, he’s actually at the center of a fable. He’s this mythical character that Walter created who has a real-life problem at the beginning, but Walter allows us to circle back and see a life well lived. It’s a fairy tale. In reality, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s or dementia, but we get one, however momentarily, that allows him to be clear about everything that’s happened in his life, in a flash.How does the series address the experience of dementia?MOSLEY A lot of people will see somebody who’s experiencing dementia or Alzheimer’s, and they think, ‘They’re crazy.’ But in reality, there’s something really going on in there, no matter how far gone they are. We allow an audience to identify not only with the character that Sam’s playing, but with our own lives. That was what the book meant to me, to be able to do that.JACKSON Those of us who have had to deal with that know that when those people are sitting there, they may not answer your questions or be present for what you want them to be present for, because they’re busy inhabiting something else that gives them solace in the lost space that they’re in, or that we think they’re in. But they may not be lost at all. They just don’t bother with what you are trying to put on.I talked to my mom when she had dementia and she’d be like, “You’re disturbing me. Stop asking me things that I’m supposed to know the answer to, or you think that I know the answer to, or that I don’t want to be engaged in right now.” When she wanted to engage, she engaged. So this story touched me in a real place.“This is a destination that either we reach ourselves in our own experience, or with people that we know and love and live with, as far as aging, dementia and death,” Mosley said.Erik Carter for The New York TimesAnd through the story, you get to invent a cure, albeit a temporary one.MOSLEY That’s the great thing about imaginative creativity. You look at Jules Verne: He’s the guy who invented the [electric] submarine, who invented the rocket to the moon. He invented all of this stuff in his imagination, and of course, it’s stuff we wanted. I was reading the newspaper yesterday, and they said umbilical cord stem cells have cured a woman of AIDS. This one woman is cured, and they did it from umbilical cord stem cells. If you put the possibility out there, lots of people are going to be thinking about it.Walter, you’ve worked in television quite a bit by now, including as an executive producer on the crime drama “Snowfall.” Sam, you have mostly stuck to movies. What made TV the right medium to tell the story of Ptolemy?MOSLEY Television has the potential to do some amazing things that are good for drama, good for actors, and good for an audience to be able to understand and identify with characters who have real arcs of change. We’re coming up on our final season of “Snowfall,” and we’re going to get to see how things are going to work out or fall apart. That’s what’s been fun.JACKSON There’s a great satisfaction for me to have a character development that allows an audience to go back and say, “OK, that’s where he started. Oh, that’s why he’s this guy. Oh, that’s why he treats women this way.” We watched movies for a very long time before we realized something like “Roots” could come along and be a mini-series. All of a sudden, boom, there’s “Roots,” and you go, “[expletive], that’s the way to tell the story.”The novel takes place in Los Angeles, but the series takes place in Atlanta. Why the move?JACKSON Georgia has better tax breaks.MOSLEY Yes, it wasn’t feasible to do it in L.A. First, we were going to go to Atlanta and try to make Atlanta look like L.A. But Atlanta doesn’t look like L.A.JACKSON There’s not one palm tree in Atlanta.Did setting the series in Atlanta add anything thematically?JACKSON There are certain elements of Atlanta that are historically indigenous to telling a story like this. Anybody who’s lived in any place that’s full of Black people will recognize this. How many white people are in this story? There’s the doctor, and the nurse. A lot of people are going to look at this and go, “Where are the white people?” You didn’t encounter them unless you had to when I was growing up in the South. In Atlanta, they had Black insurance companies, they had Black newspapers. Everything you needed, you could get in the Black community. You didn’t have to go outside of it.MOSLEY I really do think that all of those things are trace elements that impacted the making of the series, with the actors and the crew just being in Atlanta. We would tell the story anywhere we were, but making it in Atlanta was in itself an experience, and that experience had to impart some of its history to the series.Let’s talk a little about the collaboration between you two. Walter, why was it important to have Sam onboard for this?MOSLEY Sam is a great actor, but that’s just a very small part of the answer to your question. I wrote the book 13 years ago. Sam knew the book better than I did. He’d say, “No, no. Don’t you remember? You did this,” and I’d say, “Oh, yeah. OK.” He’s also an executive producer, and his commitment to the book and getting it made is why we got it made. When I was shopping it, people would say, “Sam Jackson doesn’t do television.” Well you’re right, but he’s going to do this. His commitment to it, his talent in doing it, his willingness to play a very different kind of role than he usually does and to make that work so beautifully — it was really great.Sam, what is it about Walter’s work that pulls you in?JACKSON Walter is a very feet-on-the-ground kind of guy that understands and knows his characters and knows the environment that those characters are in. Environment is very important when you’re a reader. I read a lot, two or three books at a time. Descriptions and character development are very important things, no matter what, and Walter has a command of those things that a lot of writers don’t. I read bad novels along with good ones, but I always know that I’m going to get something very satisfying when I’m reading a Walter Mosley book. More

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      ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Recap: Q Is the Worst Friend Ever

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      Everyone’s favorite omnipotent being is back to reveal yet another alternate universe. But this time, he’s not giving out an education.Season 2, Episode 2: ‘Penance’“Show them a world of their own making and they ask you what you’ve done,” John de Lancie’s Q asks Jean-Luc Picard at the top of the second episode of this season’s “Picard.”This has been the modus operandi of our favorite omnipotent being who has long toyed with Picard as his guinea pig. Q causes a significant disruption, but it’s mostly to teach pitiful humans a stern lesson and get some yuks while doing it. This version of Q seems angrier — even slapping Picard in the face once, which seems a bit out of character, but this is Gritty Trek. (Recall that when Q appears in “Deep Space Nine,” Captain Sisko punches him in the face, which shocks Q, because he can’t conceive of one of his playthings turning to violence.)Q says that this time, he’s not giving out an education.“This is not a lesson,” Q barks. “It’s a penance.”A quick digression: Picard tells Q that he’s too old for his, you know, stuff. There’s a lingering issue from the first season of “Picard” that bothers me. It’s that Picard isn’t actually too old for anything. He’s no longer human. You might remember that Picard died last season! Then he woke up as some sort of aging synthetic being. This is the danger in messing with audience expectations with a fake death. There’s always a technological out for Picard, so he’s never really in any danger. That precedent the show has set for itself will affect the dramatic tension going forward.That doesn’t mean it can’t work. Spock died in “Wrath of Khan” and was brought back to life in the next movie. He remained a compelling character for several more films.In this case, Q places Picard and the rest of his friends in what initially appears to be a Mirror Universe, but turns out to be an altered reality. Several “Trek” franchises have taken on the Mirror Universe, but Picard’s “Next Generation” was never one of them.It’s not, however, the first time Q has revealed an alternate reality to Picard. In the “Next Generation” episode “Tapestry,” Q shows Picard that if a younger version of him hadn’t taken risks, he would have been unsatisfied for the rest of his life. There was also the series finale of “The Next Generation,” where Q goads Picard into creating an anomaly across several different timelines as part of the trial of humanity. Someone please get Q a job or a show to binge watch, for the galaxy’s sake.The stakes in this reality, though, are much higher. Q shows Picard a world in which the Federation were bloodthirsty conquerors. There’s even a Museum of Conquest! We see the remains of some classic “Trek” characters, like Gul Dukat, General Martok and Sarek — all apparently murdered by a Confederation force led by Picard, who wants a “pure” world according a recording of a speech. Subtle!“This is the only life you understand,” Q tells Picard. But maybe Q is crankier than usual because, as Picard points out, he’s not well.It’s not clear what exactly Q is trying to show Picard, because Picard has never been particularly violent. For the most part, he’s always tried to find peaceful solutions. But “Trek” has never shied away from politics. The parallels between white nationalists who have been in the news in the past few years and what Evil Picard describes is apparent. Separately, it hardly seems incidental that the Eradication Day rally near the end of the episode recalls rallies led by former president Donald J. Trump, complete with the crowd chanting Picard’s name.Seven of Nine is married and the leader of the Confederation. (Hey, at least she got a promotion.) Rios is a colonel. Elnor is a rebel. Raffi is somewhere in between. Jurati runs the “eradication” process — and has a digital cat named after Data’s, Spot. She deduces that there’s been a corruption in the timeline. One wonders if Whoopi Goldberg’s Guinan will make another appearance this season, since Guinan and Q have their own history.Elnor’s appearance gave me a chuckle because when he appears in the new reality, he is 100 percent on board with the uprising, despite not knowing anything about it or why he is there to begin with. This pretty much fits with his character. He has a keen moral sense, regardless of how much information he has.The Borg Queen made the trip, too. She tells Picard that one single decision made in 2024 had lasting consequences for the entire galaxy. (I wonder if there’s something happening in our 2024 that the show is alluding to!) Incidentally, Q is the entire reason that the Enterprise ever encountered the Borg to begin with, so thanks for that, man.A weird moment comes when Picard is deducing ways to go back in time and mentions that Kirk’s Enterprise did it “on more than one occasion.” Why didn’t he mention that his own Enterprise went back in time in “First Contact,” the best “Next Generation” movie?The occasional head-scratcher aside, the first two chapters of this season have been ambitious and compelling. It’s good to see Picard can still handle a phaser. The episode ends with Seven of Nine’s faux husband discovering that Picard’s merry band is too merry for this timeline. He fell in love with Seven’s cruelty, not her compassion! His idea of date night is genocide, which must’ve made for an interesting Bumble profile.’ More