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      ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Recap: Leave Jean-Luc Alone

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      Picard has earned his retirement. Is there really no one else who can save the universe?Season 2, Episode 1: ‘The Star Gazer’Why can’t poor Jean-Luc Picard just be left alone in retirement?Really, there must be some other people to save the universe at this point. As Season 2 of “Picard” gets underway, the retired admiral looks so at peace at his vineyard. He’s picking grapes. Petting his dog. He’s smiling without a care in the world.Picard handles retirement much better than Captain Kirk ever did. Picard might even be falling in love with Laris, who is grieving after the death of Zhaban. (This feels like a violation of friend code for Picard to be flirting like this, but we’ll allow it.)The admiral has always been presented as a duty-first professional, viewing the Enterprise as the love of his life rather than pursuing something, you know, living. Even in retirement, he’s still chancellor of Starfleet Academy. His romantic interests have rarely been explored in the decades that he has appeared onscreen, except for some brief interactions with Beverly Crusher and Anij, the Ba’ku woman from “Star Trek: Insurrection.” It’s nice to see the “Picard” writers (Akiva Goldsman and Terry Matalas wrote this episode) explore that side of our favorite Earl Grey-loving Starfleet legend.If you’re a Trekkie, Picard ending up with Crusher has long felt inevitable: Two flirting friends who have a deep bond resulting from years serving together. But that’s not how life works. Often, you end up with the unexpected. Even so, Picard seems leery of making this official with Laris — he walks right up to the line and hesitates.The show generally has been excellent at fan service, and having Whoopi Goldberg reprise her role as Guinan to size up Picard like in the old days went down like a glass of kanar.“It’s not as if I haven’t loved before,” Picard tells Guinan. “I have. Sometimes quite deeply.”Maybe he, too, still thinks of his former chief medical officer. But Guinan can sense that there is a trauma that keeps Picard from becoming intimate with others, even though he wants to. Such observations are part of what makes “Picard” different from “Star Trek: The Next Generation”: It is as much a character study as it is about explosions and exploration.Picard’s friends seem to be doing well for the moment. Elnor is a cadet in Starfleet. Raffi, who was fired from Starfleet, is in good standing again and is sitting behind Picard as he gives a speech to Starfleet Academy.“May you all go boldly into a future free from the shackles of the past,” Picard says during his speech to Starfleet Academy, basically a ruh-roh moment of foreshadowing.Seven of Nine is in her element throwing punches at marauders on Rios’s old ship. Speaking of which, Rios is now a captain — apparently promotions aren’t hard to get in Starfleet nowadays, and one can just come and go as they please. Soji is giving toasts to synthetics, while Jurati got away with murder. Things are great!(A common theme of “Picard”: Many of the characters feel that they don’t deserve love, or have other hangups when it comes to relationships. Jurati says she’s not dating material. Picard won’t kiss Laris. Seven of Nine needs space from Raffa. In Season 1, Elnor felt abandoned by Picard.)But enough about love and happiness. There’s a spatial anomaly. There’s always a spatial anomaly.Whoopi Goldberg has returned to the “Star Trek” fold as Guinan.Nicole Wilder/Paramount+In previous iterations of “Trek,” Picard would have been forced to deal with this green blob in space because the Enterprise was the only ship in the vicinity. Now the writers simply have the life-forms emerge from the anomaly and demand to speak to Picard, and only Picard.In this case, a Borg ship emerges and the decimated but still terrifying sociopathic robots would like to be an ally to the Federation, something that troubles Picard’s confidantes. Even though the Borg have effectively been destroyed, they still possess technological superiority to the Federation, able to easily transport through the Stargazer’s shields and take over the entire fleet. (It’s a little difficult to reconcile the Borg being a non-factor in the universe but still able to assimilate an entire fleet of Federation ships within seconds, but we digress.)Some other nice bits of fan service: Rios is captaining the Stargazer, Picard’s ship before the Enterprise. And when cadets are given assignments, Hikaru Sulu, Kirk’s old crew mate, has a ship named after him. There’s also a reference to the Grissom, which was a Starfleet ship destroyed in “Star Trek III: The Search For Spock.”) Raffi is commanding the Excelsior, which was Sulu’s ship when he got promoted to captain in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.”And of course, there is the reappearance of John de Lancie’s Q at the end of the episode. The last time we saw Q, he essentially caused a similar spatial anomaly in the series finale of “The Next Generation,” trying to give Picard clues about how to save the universe in his own tortured way. That might be the case again here. Or maybe he just wants to play with Picard because he’s bored.It could be both. Whatever the case, in that brief scene Q clearly feels at home with his old “capitaine.” And even though Picard looks fearful in the new reality he’s been transported into, one has to wonder if he feels more comfortable taking on Q than he does falling in love. More

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      Late Night Recaps Biden’s Annual ‘Status Update’

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      Trevor Noah joked Biden’s speech was “like a birthday card from a 4-year-old: A lot of words didn’t make sense, but you got what it was trying to say.”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.America Has Updated Its StatusLate night hosts recapped President Biden’s State of the Union address on Wednesday night, which Trevor Noah called “the one night a year where the president gives the country a status update about how things are going.”“Let’s talk about the State of the Union address, the one night a year Joe Biden stays up past 6 p.m.” — TREVOR NOAH“Biden spoke for 62 minutes. Well, actually he spoke for 10 with 52 minutes of clapping.” — JIMMY FALLON“More than 33 million Americans watched Grampotus speak for more than an hour. He announced he will release 60 million barrels of oil from our national reserve, which is good news for Ted Cruz’s hair.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Last night, President Biden gave the shortest State of the Union address since 2016, clocking in at one hour and two minutes. The shortest — I like this trend. I like it. Let’s get it down — let’s get it down to one TikTok, just save us all a bunch of time.” — JAMES CORDEN“You know, at times this speech was like a birthday card from a 4-year-old: A lot of words didn’t make sense, but you got what it was trying to say.” — TREVOR NOAH“But aside from policing and Covid and Ukraine, Biden also brought up a lot of policies last night that he wanted Congress to pass this year, like letting Medicare negotiate the price of drugs and doubling clean energy production and raising taxes on corporations, and strengthening voting rights — which are all great ideas that I can’t wait for him to bring up again at next year’s State of the Union. Because, I mean, if we’re honest, none of that [expletive] is going to pass through this Congress.” — TREVOR NOAH“According to a new poll, 71 percent of Americans who watched President Biden’s State of the Union address had a positive reaction to the speech. But let’s be honest: Everyone who would have had a negative reaction was watching ‘Yellowstone.’” — SETH MEYERSThe Punchiest Punchlines (Him Who? Edition)“I’m sorry: ‘God protect our troops — Go get him.’ Get who? Go get God?” — TREVOR NOAH, on Joe Biden’s yelling “Go get him!” at the end of his State of the Union speech“Right after, Putin called Trump and was like, [imitating Putin] ‘Is he talking about me?’” — JIMMY FALLON“Go get him who? Does Biden just randomly shout, ‘Go get him’ sometimes? I mean, it would explain why his dog kept attacking people.” — TREVOR NOAH“Who are we supposed to go get? Putin? Pokemon?” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Mike Pence was watching from home and was like, ‘Not again. What did I do this time?’” — JAMES CORDENThe Bits Worth Watching“Tonight Show” guest Zoë Kravitz took Jimmy Fallon in a game of “Can You Feel It?” where they guess objects they can’t see by touch alone.What We’re Excited About on Thursday NightSerena Williams will sit down with Trevor Noah for the first time on Thursday’s “Daily Show.”Also, Check This Out“The Dropout” tracks the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and the start-up Theranos. From left: Elizabeth Meriwether, the creator; Amanda Seyfried, the star; and Rebecca Jarvis, the journalist whose podcast inspired the series.Jingyu Lin for The New York TimesThe women behind “The Dropout” seek to humanize Elizabeth Holmes in their new Hulu series about the disgraced tech entrepreneur. More

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      Stephen Colbert Grades Biden’s First State of the Union Address

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      “Many lawmakers wore the colors of the Ukrainian flag, blue and yellow,” Colbert said. “It’s a show of solidarity not seen since the last ‘Minions’ movie.”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 Civil UnionStephen Colbert went live on Tuesday night after President Biden’s first State of the Union address.“And let me tell you, it was a roller-coaster ride of rip roaring reasonableness,” Colbert said of Biden’s speech.”A roller coaster ride of rip roaring reasonableness.”- @StephenAtHome on President Biden’s #StateOfTheUnion speech. #LateShowLIVE pic.twitter.com/axxKy2F1xq— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) March 2, 2022
      “Keep in mind, a week ago, this was going to be a totally different speech. But when Ukraine was invaded, the world changed. Because right now, there is a dictator who thinks he can violently conquer a sovereign democracy, but Joe Biden beat him in the last election.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Many lawmakers wore the colors of the Ukrainian flag, blue and yellow. It’s a show of solidarity not seen since the last ‘Minions’ movie.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Not everyone was focused on the speech. Kevin McCarthy was there but busy looking at his phone. To be fair, today’s Wordle was pretty tricky.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Of course the minority leader in the House not paying attention looked disrespectful. But keep in mind, he might’ve been on Amazon shopping for a spine.” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Punchiest Punchlines (Four Horsemen Edition)“It was a tough speech. Biden said that even though the country is divided right now — right now, we all need to come together and agree that the ‘Sex and the City’ reboot wasn’t anywhere near what we hoped it would be.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Yep, it was historic — 400 representatives, 100 senators and Size 96 font on the teleprompter.” — JIMMY FALLON“But the State of our Union is as strong as Kim and Kanye right now.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“That’s right, Biden was at the podium with Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi right behind him. Fox News was like, ‘Throw in Hillary and you’ve got all Four Horsemen.’” — JIMMY FALLON“During his speech, Biden introduced his new unity agenda. Unity agenda, yeah. And you can tell it worked because every single Republican ignored him.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingThe “Late Night” writers Amber Ruffin and Jenny Hagel struggled to get through their song praising the Supreme Court hopeful Ketanji Brown Jackson.What We’re Excited About on Wednesday NightZoë Kravitz will talk about playing Catwoman (Selina Kyle) in the new “Batman” film on Wednesday’s “Tonight Show.”Also, Check This OutIn her new memoir, Amy Bloom writes about helping her husband to end his life after a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. More

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      The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to HBO, Hulu, Apple TV+ and More in March

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      Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of March’s most promising new titles.(Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)John C. Reilly, Quincy Isaiah and Jason Clarke in “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty”HBONew to HBO Max‘Drive My Car’Starts streaming: March 2Nominated for four Academy Awards this year, including best picture, this critically acclaimed drama is a captivating meditation on loss and regret. Directed and co-written by Ryusuke Hamaguchi (adapting a Haruki Murakami short story), “Drive My Car” has Hidetoshi Nishijima playing Yusuke Kafuku, a renowned actor and theater director who is mourning the death of his wife and muse. When he agrees to direct a multilingual stage adaptation of “Uncle Vanya” in Hiroshima, Yusuke bonds with his designated driver, while also forging a wary relationship with the play’s star — who was his late wife’s secret lover. Though the movie has a three-hour running time, Hamaguchi moves the plot fairly briskly from one quietly intense scene to another, bringing a beautiful blue tinge to the story of a man haunted by all things he has left unsaid and undone.‘Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty’Starts streaming: March 6The sports reporter Jeff Pearlman’s book “Showtime” covered the rise of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, an exciting and star-laden team who helped the N.B.A. become an international phenomenon. The TV adaptation “Winning Time” turns that tale into a stylish period dramedy and features an all-star cast recreating an era when a handful of strong, often conflicting personalities changed the whole culture of professional basketball. The producer Adam McKay (who also directed the first episode) and creators Max Borenstein and Jim Hecht deploy a storytelling style reminiscent of McKay’s movie “The Big Short,” where characters like Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly), Jerry West (Jason Clarke), Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) and Pat Riley (Adrien Brody) sometimes break the fourth wall to help explain the fine details of business management, on-court strategy and handling superstar egos.‘Minx’ Season 1Starts streaming: March 17Set amid the freewheeling publishing industry in early 1970s Los Angeles, “Minx” stars Ophelia Lovibond as Joyce, an activist who gets the chance to create and edit the feminist magazine of her dreams — so long as she is willing to include erotic photo spreads of naked men. Jake Johnson plays Doug, a successful pornographer who mentors Joyce, a proudly independent woman embarrassed to admit the troubles she has had adjusting to the age of sexual liberation. Created by Ellen Rapoport, “Minx” finds humor in the ways that certain gender-role expectations and stereotypes persist even in an “anything goes” era of free love and progressive politics.Also arriving:March 1“The Larry David Story”March 2“West Side Story”March 3“Gaming Wall Street”“Little Ellen” Season 2“Our Flag Means Death” Season 1“The Tourist” Season 1March 8“Ruxx” Season 1March 10“Dune”“Theodosia” Season 1March 13“Game Theory with Bomani Jones” Season 1March 13“Blade Runner: Black Lotus” Season 1March 15“Phoenix Rising”March 17“DMZ” Season 1“Jellystone!” Season 2March 18“Lust” Season 1“Pseudo”March 20“Amsterdam” Season 1March 24“King Richard”“One Perfect Shot” Season 1“Starstruck” Season 2March 31“Julia” Season 1“Moonshot”Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball as seen in “Lucy and Desi.”Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesNew to Prime Video‘Lucy and Desi’Starts streaming: March 4The comedian and producer Amy Poehler directed this homage to the groundbreaking Hollywood power couple Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, taking a comprehensive look at their impressive careers and rocky marriage. With the help of rare home movies and old audio interviews — combined with new comments from Carol Burnett, Bette Midler and others — Poehler and her team detail how Ball and Arnaz worked their way up in show business, before creating the groundbreaking sitcom “I Love Lucy” and founding the influential television studio Desilu Productions. This is a film about two widely beloved entertainers who helped change television with their business savvy and their stubborn refusals to compromise, even as they worked to exhaustion and made each other miserable behind the scenes.Also arriving:March 4“The Boys Presents: Diabolical”March 7“2022 Academy of Country Music Awards”March 10“Harina”March 11“Upload” Season 2March 18“Master”March 25“Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls”Steve Sang-Hyun Noh, center, with Minha Kim and Inji Jeong in “Pachinko.”Apple TV+New to Apple TV+‘Pachinko’ Season 1Starts streaming: March 25Min Jin Lee’s best-selling historical novel “Pachinko” inspired this ambitious drama, which follows one Korean family across three countries and seven decades against the backdrop of war and military occupation. Created by Soo Hugh — a writer and producer on “The Terror” — and featuring the work of the acclaimed indie film directors Kogonada and Justin Chon, “Pachinko” weaves together story lines from multiple time periods, including from a Korean fishing village in the early 20th century and Japan around the time of World War II and the late 1980s, when global business concerns were shrinking a lot of the old distinctions between regions and ideals. Like the book, the series is about the legacies and connections that sustain people through times of turmoil.Also arriving:March 4“Dear…” Season 2March 11“The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey”March 18“WeCrashed”Amanda Seyfried portraying Elizabeth Holmes in “The Dropout.”Beth Dubber/HuluNew to Hulu‘The Dropout’Starts streaming: March 3Amanda Seyfried plays the scandal-plagued biotech entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes in “The Dropout,” a miniseries based on the podcast of the same name. Anyone who has read the various investigative exposés about Holmes’s failed start-up, Theranos, already knows the yarn of how the company claimed to have developed a groundbreaking blood-testing device that never worked as promised. “The Dropout” goes deeper into Holmes’s past, framing her less as a hapless fraud than as a well-meaning misfit who was in too much of a rush to become rich and famous.‘Atlanta’ Season 3Starts streaming: March 25After a four-year layoff, Donald Glover’s one-of-a-kind, award-winning dramedy “Atlanta” returns for its third and penultimate season, which was shot mostly in London. (Season 4 is currently slated to run this fall, wrapping up the series.) The story picks up with the aspiring rap star Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) and his bumbling manager and cousin, Earn (Glover), trying to make inroads in the European market while they and their friends Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) and Van (Zazie Beetz) are feeling more alienated than usual by their surroundings. As always with “Atlanta,” expect the unexpected, as Glover and his creative team explore aspects of the Black experience that range from the subtly poignant to the comically surreal.Also arriving:March 1“Better Things” Season 5“The Savior for Sale”March 4“Benedetta”“Dicktown” Season 2“Fresh”March 6“Mark, Mary & Some Other People”March 8“India Sweets and Spices”March 10“American Refugee”March 14“Hell Hath No Fury”March 15“You Can’t Kill Meme”March 17“Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn”March 18“Deep Water”“Life & Beth” Season 1March 19“Captains of Za’atari”March 26“Mass”March 29“The Girl from Plainville”Oscar Isaac as the hero in “Moon Knight.”Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios.New to Disney+‘Moon Knight’ Season 1Starts streaming: March 30The latest Marvel Cinematic Universe television series features a cult-favorite superhero: a cloaked vigilante who draws inspiration and strength from an ancient Egyptian god. Oscar Isaac plays the hero, who has dissociative identity disorder but does his best to use the unique qualities of his different selves in his fight over evil. In the Marvel comics, Moon Knight is a fairly dark, violent character, similar to Batman and Daredevil in his knowledge of the criminal underworld and his willingness to crack skulls. The TV version is being pitched as similarly shadowy, as evidenced by the first season’s main villain: a charismatic religious cult leader played by Ethan Hawke.Also arriving:March 11“Turning Red”March 18“Cheaper by the Dozen”“More Than Robots”March 23“Parallels” Season 1March 25“Olivia Rodrigo: driving home 2 u”“The Wonderful Spring of Mickey Mouse” More

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      'The Dropout' Shows Elizabeth Holmes's Style Evolution

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      How the costume and makeup teams for “The Dropout,” a new Hulu series, transformed Amanda Seyfried into the disgraced Theranos founder.It started, inevitably, with the turtleneck.In Amanda Seyfried’s first fitting for her role as Elizabeth Holmes in “The Dropout,” Claire Parkinson, the show’s costume designer, focused on the disgraced Theranos founder’s trademark top: a black Issey Miyake turtleneck pulled from the uniform of her idol Steve Jobs. The shirt doesn’t appear until halfway through the Hulu series, set to premiere March 3, but, Ms. Parkinson said, “we needed to figure out what we were building toward.”She had found a vintage Miyake turtleneck and dupes from dozens of other brands. In the end, she went with a semi-synthetic number from Wolford.“It had the perfect stretchiness that she could play with,” Ms. Parkinson said, referring to the fiddling and finger-worrying that Ms. Seyfried performs throughout the series, her jaw flexed and eyes held wide. Even as her voice deepens and her posture straightens out, Hulu’s Elizabeth Holmes looks consistently awkward and maladroit.Claire Parkinson, the show’s costume designer, opted for a Wolford turtleneck, rather than the Issey Miyake version Ms. Holmes wore.Hulu“I’d make Amanda scrunch up her face when I was applying her makeup,” said Jorjee Douglass, the makeup artist who reinterpreted Ms. Holmes’s clumpy mascara and cakey foundation.Such details were essential to the construction of Ms. Holmes’s identity in Silicon Valley, from her initial investor meetings to her fraud trial, where she showed up with beach waves and a diaper bag. (Ms. Holmes was found guilty on one count of conspiracy and three counts of wire fraud, and will be sentenced in September.)“Elizabeth Holmes is costuming herself, and we are costuming her as she’s costuming herself,” said Elizabeth Meriwether, the creator and executive producer of “The Dropout,” adapted from the podcast of the same name. “There’s always a lot of emotional weight behind what she’s wearing.”Understand the Elizabeth Holmes TrialElizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, was found guilty of four counts of fraud in a case that came to symbolize the pitfalls of Silicon Valley’s culture of hustle, hype and greed. She is set to be sentenced on Sept. 26.Holmes’s Epic Rise and Fall: Silicon Valley’s philosophy of “fake it until you make it” finally got its comeuppance.Key Takeaways: Few tech executives are charged with fraud and even fewer are convicted. Here are five takeaways from the verdict.Analysis: Ms. Holmes wasn’t a creature of Silicon Valley, or so the refrain went. But her trial showed otherwise.What Happens Next: Ms. Holmes now awaits sentencing. She can appeal the conviction, her sentence or both.The costume team dressed Ms. Seyfried in versions of pieces that Ms. Holmes had been photographed in or that felt true to the story’s place and time period, from her 1990s Houston childhood up to 2015, when the Stanford dropout became a biotech titan worth billions.Her wardrobe is filled with ill-fitting and unflattering secondhand pieces that Ms. Parkinson, who was nominated for two Emmys for her work on “The Politician,” sourced from eBay, Etsy, Depop, Poshmark and costume warehouses in Los Angeles, where she and her wife live part-time. The items are drab, the labels practical: Banana Republic, J. Crew and the like.Ana Arriola, a former Apple designer who briefly worked at Theranos and staged an image intervention with Ms. Holmes when she was her boss, met with the show’s writers room. “She told us the story of how when she met Elizabeth, she was wearing Christmas sweaters,” Ms. Meriwether said. “We pressed her and we were like, ‘Actual reindeer sweaters?’”It turned out Ms. Arriola meant pullovers with fair-isle and snowflake patterns, which appear on the show, before they’re swapped out for a shiny black replica of a Patagonia vest that Ms. Parkinson’s team made by hand.As Elizabeth settles into the role of founder, she trades fair-isle sweaters for a Patagonia puffer vest (handmade by the show’s costume team).HuluWhile the overall look of the production is unflashy and heavy on earth tones, Ms. Parkinson let the surrounding cast stand in chic contrast to the central figure. Elizabeth’s mother wears Chanel and Tory Burch (Ms. Parkinson’s inspiration for her was Princess Diana), George Shultz (Sam Waterston) has “beautiful bespoke” suiting, and Ian Gibbons (the British chemist played by Stephen Fry) wears sweaters and trousers that telegraph taste and integrity. “Every single character had huge closets,” Ms. Parkinson said.In her fittings with Ms. Seyfried, Ms. Parkinson sought to render something askew about the fit. “Most people look good in black,” she said. “So how can we make it not look good?” Her solution was to play around with the bunching, billowing and wrinkling.Elizabeth’s wardrobe becomes more polished as the show progresses (out with the Gap, in with the Gucci!), but the pieces still sit oddly on Ms. Seyfried. “My goal here was to make it seem like it actually is a costume,” Ms. Parkinson said.She was hired to work in the show in March 2020. Because of the pandemic, filming didn’t begin for a year and a half, over which Kate McKinnon dropped out as the lead and Ms. Seyfried stepped in.Separately, Ms. Parkinson got married; bought an 1860s house in Litchfield County, Conn.; and dealt with a case of Covid-19 in March 2021, which forced her to pull out of a project that was shooting in Atlanta and send her sister, Lily Parkinson, also a costume designer and personal stylist, in her place.When “The Dropout” began shooting in June 2021, Ms. Parkinson had spent more than a year mulling the inner life and outer appearance of Ms. Holmes. Wearing a uniform as armor has long been a favored strategy of women seeking respect in the male-dominated preserve of Silicon Valley. While men are encouraged to telegraph their nonconformist credibility via sweatshirts and soccer slides, women face pressure to look pulled together yet fashion agnostic.Victoria Hitchcock, a Bay Area stylist, keeps a list of chic yet smart designers she suggests for female clients, including the Row, Stella McCartney and Saint Laurent. “I also have a list of designers I would not recommend my clients wear,” she said. “Things that are super-feminine and flowery” are big no-nos.While male founders are encouraged to telegraph their nonconformist credibility through clothes, women face pressure to look presentable yet fashion agnostic.Hulu“I’m wearing an Ulla Johnson blouse right now, but I wouldn’t put that on somebody who’s wanting to exude confidence and knowledge,” Ms. Hitchcock added.Ms. Holmes’s uniform of choice, which would become a punchline, started out as sartorial Soylent for someone who could not be bothered. Clothes were a nuisance to her, a point dramatized in a pre-turtleneck scene involving a pesky bra strap and a pair of scissors.“‘Why’ was a word I kept asking myself,” Ms. Parkinson said of her time researching Ms. Holmes. “I was always like: ‘Why is she wearing that?’ They were all befuddling choices.” But one image struck her as looking the most natural: Ms. Holmes at Burning Man, wearing a bulky coat with a furry collar and oversize pink sunglasses.“The thing I liked about that is that’s a costume, and it almost feels like she’s comfortable in it,” Ms. Parkinson said. “She’s completely happy and in her own world.” More

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      Mira Sorvino Replenishes With Crosswords and Marinara Sauce

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      Her career comeback continues as a ghostly housewife in the Starz horror comedy series “Shining Vale.” Inspirational writers help her find peace.“I really had the time of my life,” Mira Sorvino said. “Like, the most fun you could have and be paid for.”Sorvino, 54, was speaking of “Shining Vale,” the horror comedy series that premieres on Starz on March 6. She stars as Rosemary, a 1950s housewife from hell. (Actual hell? Probably!) As a ghostly Rosemary torments Patricia (Courteney Cox), a present-day writer, Sorvino seems to be enjoying every dry-martini minute of it. “She has a delight in being alive again,” Sorvino said of her character.“Shining Vale” continues something of a resurgence for Sorvino, who appeared last year in “Impeachment: American Crime Story.” and in “Hollywood” the year before. Though she won a best supporting actress Oscar in 1996, Sorvino spent two decades iced out of prestige Hollywood projects, a consequence, she would later learn, of having rejected Harvey Weinstein’s advances.“I have to be damn grateful for the filmmakers and the showrunners saying, ‘Oh, we still believe in Mira. We still think she has it. Let’s see what she can do,’” Sorvino said.She was speaking from her Los Angeles home, where she lives with her husband, the actor Christopher Backus, their four children and arguably too many cats and dogs. While recovering from Covid-19, Sorvino took an hour to discuss the people, places and leisure activities that bring her peace and joy. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1. Capri We were trying to choose a place to get married when we were invited to Capri’s film festival. I had already had this dream of having a wedding on, like, a rocky promontory overlooking the ocean. I thought maybe I could achieve that in America. But I just fell in love with Capri. It was a way of inviting all of my ancestral ghosts to join us at the wedding. We went back for our 15th anniversary and renewed our vows with our kids there.2. Rescue Animals I have seven rescue animals. We got four of them all at once. My sister’s an animal rescuer. She asked us during the pandemic to foster a family of kittens and their mama. And, of course, by the time they had grown up, everyone had fallen in love with all of them. Even the mama, who in the beginning bit and scratched and was a little scary.3. Childhood Fantasy Literature Yesterday, with my 9-year-old daughter, we were reading one of the “Oz” books. We’ve read “The Wizard of Oz.” We’ve read “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” We’ve read the “Harry Potter” series together. “Escape to Witch Mountain,” I forced my other kids to read that with me, because that was my favorite book.4. Running I first started running in college. I had been sexually assaulted on the beach when I was a teen. Afterward, I felt physically powerless. I decided to sign up for novice crew, just to try and build some physical agency. Part of what we had to do was run five miles a day, along the Charles River. At first that was really tough for someone who hadn’t run before, but then it turned into a lifelong passion. For some reason, I feel invulnerable when I’m running.5. Family Recipes I watched my grandmother cook. She would babysit for us a lot. She was a delicious cook, but a little bit greasy. Sometimes I would take this ladle and try and scoop the oil off the top of the sauce. Then she would make me put it all back in. All of these recipes are very simple, but you have to have what my grandparents called “the hand.” My favorite is probably just a simple marinara. It’s fresh tomatoes or canned, and garlic, oil and salt, a little basil. That’s it.6. Driving across America When I was small, my family drove us across the country after my father, [the actor Paul Sorvino], finished a television show in California. I was so taken with the various places we stopped. Ever since then, whenever I’ve had the option to drive across America, instead of fly, I’ve piled my family into a van. For me, it’s always mind-blowing how different each part of this country is and how beautiful and how strange.7. The New York Times Crossword I used to do it with my dad. He was even able to do Saturday. I can’t do Saturday — I throw up my hands. It’s exciting when people have been like, ‘Mira! You’re in The Times’s crossword puzzle!’ That’s a real sign of having arrived, when this pastime that you’ve loved your whole life all of a sudden has you as a clue.8. Inspirational Reading I used to love fiction. But I veer more toward nonfiction now, because I’m looking for templates on how to live and grow and deal with life as it changes in front of me. I look to others, who have had more difficult circumstances than my own, and see how they pursued actions that could change situations not only for themselves, but also for others, for the greater good. Books that have been important to me in the past year: Coretta Scott King’s autobiography, Anita Hill’s autobiography, Richard Rohr’s “The Naked Now,” Marianne Widmalm’s “Our Mother: the Holy Spirit.”9. My Late Grandmother Angela Maria Mattea Renzi Sorvino was known as Marietta. She was the most loving person that I have ever known, had the hardest life, was not bitter, was brilliant, spoke five languages and she just loved. She gave me what it was to love and she gave me what it was to persevere, even when you’ve had everything taken from you. I carry her in my heart all the time.10. “Saturday Night Live” Honestly, my favorite form of acting is comedy. I’m good at drama. I can do it. It’s basically being real. But being funny is much more difficult. I just want to thank every cast member of “S.N.L.” and even all the guests for bringing me happiness. It would be a dream of mine someday to be on the show. Even for one skit. More

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      Trevor Noah Reviews Putin’s Attempt at a Soviet Reunion

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      If bringing back the Soviet Union is Putin’s goal, the “Daily Show” host joked, long lines are a good start.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.Like Old TimesTrevor Noah was off the air last week, so he dedicated Monday’s “Daily Show” to the current situation in Ukraine, referring to it as “the largest European conflict since World War II — or when Harry and Meghan left the royals.”“Because it’s always been Putin’s wet dream to reunite the Soviet Union, you know? Sort of the same way Disney wants to tie all of its franchises together. Yeah, now Mickey is fighting Thanos? That’s weird, but profitable.” — TREVOR NOAH“Well, damn, Putin’s goal was to bring back the glory days of the Soviet Union. People waiting hours in long lines is definitely a start.” — TREVOR NOAH“They’re cutting off banking, they’re arming their enemies, and on top of that, airlines are stopping flights to and from Russia, which in my opinion might be one of the worst things. Because I mean the best part about going to Russia is that you can fly out of Russia. Now they don’t even have that.” — TREVOR NOAH“Yes, the threat of nuclear annihilation may have increased; yes, we may be on the brink of World War III; and, yes, Europe is once again at the mercy of one power-hungry dictator, but on the bright side, when was the last time you thought about Covid, huh?” — TREVOR NOAHThe Punchiest Punchlines (Taking Sides Edition)“Even famously neutral Switzerland is taking action against Russia. Switzerland, the people who never take a side, are taking a side on this.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Switzerland has a knife out for Russia, and since it’s a Swiss knife, it comes with little scissors, a toothpick and a corkscrew.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“The Swiss don’t get involved in war. They don’t get involved in alliances. My dad didn’t get involved in my life. I would ask him to hug me, and he’d tell me that his official policy was to stay neutral.” — TREVOR NOAH, whose father is Swiss-German“The Swiss president said, ‘Russia’s attack cannot be accepted regarding international law, this cannot be accepted politically, and this cannot be accepted morally.’ And these are the people who gave Hitler a safe deposit box, so.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“This is Switzerland, who may I remind you didn’t take a side when it came to Hitler, but they looked at Russia and said, ‘OK, you’ve gone too far.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“This is like the Dalai Lama grabbin’ a buck knife and an AK and screaming, ‘Kill ’em all! Let the Buddha sort ’em out.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Imagine being sanctioned by a country that has been neutral for hundreds of years. It would be like Tom Hanks telling a child to go [expletive] himself.” — JAMES CORDEN“They have frozen Russian assets and closed Swiss airspace, which is helpful. And now not only is Putin in hot water, he’s in hot chocolate too.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“So to recap, Russia has now lost the Taliban and the Swiss. The most and least violent people in the world are united against Russia right now.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Bits Worth WatchingThe “Saturday Night Live” star Kate McKinnon faced off against Jimmy Fallon in a word game called “Hey Robot.”What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightSandra Oh will talk about the end of “Killing Eve” on Tuesday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”Also, Check This OutHarvey Fierstein writes about his life and career in his new memoir, “I Was Better Last Night.” More

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      What’s on TV This Week: ‘After Yang’ and the State of the Union

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      Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith and Justin H. Min star in a new sci-fi movie on Showtime. And President Biden delivers a State of the Union address.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, Feb. 28-March 6. Details and times are subject to change.MondayTRAYVON MARTIN: 10 YEARS LATER 8 p.m. on BET. Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Black teenager in Florida, was shot and killed almost exactly 10 years ago by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain. Gayle King, the co-host of “CBS Mornings,” hosts this hourlong special, which commemorates Martin and looks at the activism that his death continues to help galvanize. The program includes interviews with Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, and other mothers whose children have been killed by the police or by gun violence.MY BRILLIANT FRIEND 10 p.m. on HBO. The third season of the show, which centers on a friendship between two girls, Lenù and Lila, who come of age in mid-20th-century Naples, will debut on Monday night. It is adapted from the third of Elena Ferrante’s four Neopolitan books, “Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay,” and finds Lenù and Lila grappling with careers, marriage and, eventually, motherhood. This will be the final season for the actresses Margherita Mazzucco, 19, and Gaia Girace, 18: The fourth book in the series, “The Story of the Lost Child,” which would be the focus of a potential fourth season, revolves around the characters in middle age. “I have never read the final pages of the fourth book,” Mazzucco told The New York Times recently. “I don’t want to know how it ends.”TuesdayPresident Biden in February. He is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday.Sarahbeth Maney/The New York TimesSTATE OF THE UNION 9 p.m. on various networks (check local listings); streaming on Facebook, Twitter, WH.gov and YouTube. President Biden is set to deliver his State of the Union speech to Congress on Tuesday night. Biden will presumably speak to the progress that his administration has made since his first address to Congress last year — including the passage of the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and the nearly $1.9 trillion stimulus package — though he’ll have a lot more to cover. He’s likely to address Russia’s war on Ukraine, the selection of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his nominee to the Supreme Court and the state of the coronavirus pandemic, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosen safety guidelines.Inside the World of Elena FerranteThe mysterious Italian writer has won international attention with her intimate representations of Neapolitan life, womanhood and friendship. Beginner’s Guide: New to Elena Ferrante’s work? Here’s a breakdown of her most important writing. Latest Novel: Following the success of her Neapolitan novels, the author returned to fiction with a suspenseful story about parents and their sins.English-Language Translator: The work of Ann Goldstein has helped catapult Ferrante to global fame. Humility is a hallmark of her approach.Onscreen: The HBO series based on Ferrante’s “My Brilliant Friend” is a testament to the elusive writer’s ability to create inscrutable characters.Lenù and Lila: The actresses playing the two protagonists in the HBO adaptation grew up with their characters. Here is what they said about it.THE LARRY DAVID STORY 9 p.m. on HBO. What’s the difference between Larry David the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” character and Larry David the successful producer and performer? Based on a trailer for “The Larry David Story,” the answer is a dusting of facial hair and a touch of introspection. David reflects on his life and career in this two-part documentary, which covers his upbringing in Brooklyn, his beginnings in comedy, his success with “Seinfeld” (which he co-created) and his more recent work on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” The documentary was directed by the comic and filmmaker Larry Charles, a staff writer on “Seinfeld” whose well-established rapport with David comes through in their conversations.WednesdayLA STRADA (1956) 6 p.m. on TCM. When the Oscar for best international feature is handed out at the Academy Awards ceremony next month, the winner will become part of a lineage that “La Strada” helped establish: This Federico Fellini classic was the first movie to win the best foreign-language film honor when that category became a competitive award at the Oscars in 1956. The movie raised the profiles of both Fellini and his wife and collaborator, Giulietta Masina, who plays a young woman who is sold to a traveling circus strongman (Anthony Quinn). “‘La Strada’ is often sentimental and not always convincing but the ending packs a wallop,” J. Hoberman wrote about the film last year in his “Rewind” column.ThursdayTilda Swinton in “The French Dispatch.”Searchlight PicturesTHE FRENCH DISPATCH (2021) 8 p.m. on HBO Signature. Wes Anderson drew inspiration from the old-school days of The New Yorker for this ornate anthology comedy, which follows a collection of eccentric magazine writers and their subjects — played by an ensemble that includes Bill Murray, Benicio Del Toro, Léa Seydoux, Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton — in a mid-20th-century French city. Typewriters clack. Cocktails disappear.FridayAFTER YANG (2022) 9 p.m. on Showtime. In his 2017 feature debut, “Columbus,” the filmmaker Kogonada used the modernist architecture of Columbus, Ind., to give a surreal, otherworldly undercurrent to a modest story about a close friendship. His new movie, “After Yang,” takes place solidly in the future: It centers on a mother (played by Jodie Turner-Smith), father (Colin Farrell) and young daughter (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja) whose humanoid robot, Yang (Justin H. Min), breaks down. The loss of Yang is essentially the loss of a family member, but it may be possible to repair him.SaturdayVin Diesel, left and John Cena in “F9.” Giles Keyte/Universal PicturesF9 (2021) 8 p.m. on HBO. If the “Fast and Furious” movies went all-electric, and the grunt of gasoline engines was muted, the series could still rely on Vin Diesel’s voice to fill out the low end of the sonic spectrum. The latest installment of the series introduced a new villain, played by John Cena, and brought back the familiar faces of Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Helen Mirren and Charlize Theron. The movie also saw the return of the director Justin Lin, a veteran of the franchise who had stepped away for several years. Lin makes the movie “feel scrappy and baroque at the same time,” A.O. Scott said in his review for The Times.SundayLester Holt, left, and the former Attorney General William P. Barr in an NBC News primetime special.NBC NewsNBC NEWS PRIMETIME SPECIAL 9 p.m. on NBC. Lester Holt interviews the former Attorney General William P. Barr in this hourlong special. The two discuss Barr’s final days as Attorney General during the Trump administration, when he rebuked former President Donald J. Trump’s false claims of a stolen election by acknowledging that the Justice Department had found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. The conversation also touches on policing in America, among other topics. More