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      ‘Truelove’ Explores Truth, Love and Endings

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      This thoughtful British mini-series explores the complex bonds among a group of aging friends who are determined not to let one another suffer.“Truelove,” available now, on Acorn, is an ensemble drama about assisted suicide, about the bonds of friendship and the well-worn paths of regret. Later in its six-episode season, it is also a murder show, which feels a lot less special. But I guess by the time you’ve got morose British people walking by the seashore, you might as well throw in an investigation.The show centers on a group of old friends who gather at a funeral. In their grief and inebriation, they make a pact: We won’t let one another suffer. We’ll help one another die with dignity if that day comes. That’s what friends are for, right?When the first terminal diagnosis lands, the pals initially can’t bring themselves to help their compatriot die. But then he tries to hang himself, which he survives, and from his hospital bed he laments to the group, “I’m on suicide watch and ‘do not resuscitate.’” Maybe they will stick to the plan; maybe friendship means doing things together, the important things, even when they’re hard and sad and terrible.But if life is messy, death is doubly so, and confronting mortality sure has a way of changing one’s priorities. Phil (Lindsay Duncan, fantastic), still a little adrift after retiring from the police force, is incredibly loyal to her friends — and not only because she treasures them, etc. Her husband (Phil Davis) is not part of their clique. Her long-ago love (Clarke Peters) is. Maybe there’s a silver, silver-haired lining to all this heartache.Some of the needle drops here are perfect and lovely, while others are so on-the-nose they make your teeth ring. Understated, textured arguments exist alongside flat, dumb ones. The show becomes shallower but more propulsive as it goes, especially after a young police officer (Kiran Sonia Sawar) starts looking into this suspicious death cluster.At its highs, though, “Truelove” is a superb and knotty domestic drama. “Apart from blasting into space, divorce is the most expensive thing you can do,” Phil scolds her newly separated daughter, but she can’t ride that high horse for long. Where one partner accrues commitment, the other amasses boredom and resentment. It’s so easy to love what you don’t have. More

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      Late Night Is Expecting Tariffs With a Side of Drama

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      New tariffs will be unveiled at the White House Rose Garden — because “when you elect a reality TV star, you get all your economic policy via rose ceremony,” said Stephen Colbert. 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.‘Pack Your Lederhosen’President Trump plans to announce yet more tariffs in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday (he’s calling it “Liberation Day”).“Like everything, he’s got to make it a spectacle,” Stephen Colbert said on Tuesday.“Because when you elect a reality TV star, you get all your economic policy via rose ceremony.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“[imitating Trump] Germany, I enjoyed our time in the fantasy suite, but your home visit left me cold. Thirty percent tariffs across the board. Pack your lederhosen, Fräulein.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Yes, ‘Liberation Day.’ I’m reminded of the immortal words of Patrick Henry: ‘Give me liberty or charge me an extra $10,000 for a Hyundai Elantra.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“President Trump is set to announce a new set of tariffs tomorrow in what he said will be ‘Liberation Day.’ Ah, yes, the day we’ll all finally be liberated from our 401(k)s.” — SETH MEYERS“Yep, Trump’s calling tomorrow ‘Liberation Day,’ while every stockbroker is calling it ‘Inebriation Day.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Right now, everyone who has invested their savings in Beanie Babies is like, ‘Well, well, well, who’s the idiot now?’” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (Administrative Error Edition)“On Sunday night, President Trump deported more gang members to El Salvador, including child rapists and convicted killers. It’s all part of a bigger plan to make El Salvador more like Times Square.” — GREG GUTFELDWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Jon Stewart: Trump Is ‘Trying to Order Off-Menu From the Constitution’

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      President Trump says there are “methods” by which he could get a third term. “I think you tried one a few years ago,” the “Daily Show” host quipped. 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.Animal StyleIn an interview on Sunday, President Trump said he was considering his options for pursuing a third term in office, even though the Constitution forbids it. (He said there were “methods” by which it could be done.)“I’m sorry — ‘considering the option?’” Jon Stewart said on Monday’s “Daily Show.”“What, are you trying to order off-menu from the Constitution? ‘Oh, yeah, I see you got, uh, what do you got, two terms here — but can I get it animal style?’” — JON STEWART“Yes, there are other methods. I think you tried one a few years ago.” — JON STEWART“Although maybe Trump has something more creative in mind with the Vance thing. Have you guys heard of the movie ‘Face/Off?’” — JON STEWART“So aside from the president saying, ‘I’m not leaving,’ is there any other image of the shambolic state of our democracy? Perhaps something that looks like what you might get if you fed ‘the destruction of democracy’ into an A.I. meme generator? Oh, right. Elon Musk. OK.” — JON STEWARTThe Punchiest Punchlines (The Donstitution Edition)“If you don’t like Trump tariffs, and not many people do, don’t you worry: One day he won’t be president — maybe.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“President Trump said in a new interview that he is ‘not joking’ about seeking a third term and added, ‘There are methods.’ In response, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer announced that Democrats will have a plan in place to stop him by 2032.” — SETH MEYERS“In fact, he’s already working on some slogans for another run. I’m going to show you what I mean. First, there’s ‘Trump ’28: I Edited the Constitution With a Sharpie, and the Donstitution Says It’s Legal.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Up next, there’s ‘Trump ’28: Remember How Awesome It Was to Have a President in His 80s?’” — JIMMY FALLON“Here’s another one: ‘Trump ’28: Greenland Is Now Worth 300 Electoral Votes.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Then there’s ‘Trump ’28: It’s Totally Legal, According to New Supreme Court Justices Jake and Logan Paul.” — JIMMY FALLON“And, finally, ‘Trump ’28: If You Vote for Me, I’ll Add You to the Top-Secret Group Chat.’”— JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingOn Monday’s “Late Night,” the comedian Amber Ruffin addressed the White House Correspondents’ Association’s cancellation of her planned performance at its black-tie dinner.What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightMichelle Williams will discuss her new FX dramedy “Dying for Sex” on “The Late Show.”Also, Check This OutUsing footage the residents had filmed on a tiny camera, “Secret Mall Apartment” places their stunt in the context of the rapid gentrification that was happening at the time.Michael TownsendA new documentary, “Secret Mall Apartment,” recounts how eight artists managed to live in a shopping center from 2003 to 2007. More

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      ‘Dying for Sex,’ Plus 7 Things to Watch on TV this Week

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      The Hulu show starring Michelle Williams premieres, and the third season of “White Lotus” wraps up.Between streaming and cable, there is a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that air or stream this week, March 31-April 6. Details and times are subject to change.Certain circumstances of being a woman.In 2020 Nikki Boyer hosted a podcast in which she chatted with her best friend Molly Kochan, who, after being diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer, decided to leave her husband to explore her sexual desires for the first time in her life. A new series, inspired by the podcast, “Dying for Sex” stars Michelle Williams as Molly and Jenny Slate as Nikki. Rob Delaney, Kelvin Yu, David Rasche also make appearances. Streaming on Hulu on Friday.Though menopause will effect every woman who lives into her 40s and up, there is only starting to be a public conversation about its symptoms or possible treatments. And who better to tackle the issue than Oprah Winfrey? She has recently hosted shows discussing weight loss drugs and A.I., and now comes “An Oprah Winfrey Special: The Menopause Revolution,” which will feature a panel with Naomi Watts, Halle Berry, Dr. Mary Claire Haver and others as they discuss their personal experiences and share research. Monday at 10 p.m. on ABC.A bounty hunter, a doctor and a dysfunctional family walk into a bar …The new series, “The Bondsman” answers the question I can only assume has been top of mind for most of us: What if Kevin Bacon were a bounty hunter resurrected from the dead by the devil to help bring escaped demons back to hell? Bacon stars as Hub Halloran, the aforementioned resurrected bounty hunter, who also spends time, when he’s not busy chasing demons, reflecting on what landed him in hell in the first place, getting a second chance at love and jump-starting his country music career. Jennifer Nettles, Damon Herriman and Beth Grant also star. Streaming on Thursday on Prime Video.Willa Fitzgerald and Colin Woodell in “Pulse.”Jeff Neumann/NetflixThough we have seen countless encounters on TV of hot doctors canoodling in the on-call rooms, it somehow never gets old. On “Pulse,” a new medical drama, the stakes get upped when a Category 1 hurricane rips through a busy Miami medical center. The third-year resident Dr. Danny Simms (Willa Fitzgerald) and the chief resident Dr. Xander Phillips (Colin Woodell) are locked down in the hospital and forced to work together as details of their affair starts to spread. No medical show romance can probably ever top Meredith Grey and McDreamy, but one can only hope. Streaming Thursday on Netflix.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3, Episode 7: Lovers and Fighters

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      “The White Lotus” tells us only enough about the characters’ pasts to explain some of the choices they make. Sometimes this works; sometimes it doesn’t.Season 3, Episode 7: ‘Killer Instincts’One unusual quality of “The White Lotus” is that the show’s creator, Mike White, keeps his characters’ back stories to a minimum. He mainly traffics in types: the swaggering North Carolina money-manager, the vain celebrity, and so on.White tells us only enough about their pasts to explain some of the choices they make. We know a lot about Rick’s past, because his tragic childhood led directly to every move he has made this season. But we know very little about the Ratliff kids beyond the personas they project: the cocky older brother, the rebellious lefty sister and whatever the heck Lochlan is supposed to be. As for what made them this way? We can use our imaginations to shade in the finer details.Most of the time, this approach works well enough. There is a wonderfully wry comic moment in this week’s episode, when Piper gets embarrassed while watching Lochlan struggle awkwardly with his monastery dinner. We know just enough about her to guess what she is thinking. She suddenly seems a lot like her mother, concerned less with her brother’s feelings than with how his clumsiness reflects on her. (See also: Piper’s mildly dismayed expression when Lochlan says he wants to spend the year in Thailand with her.)On the other hand, Saxon’s overall blankness becomes a problem in this episode, leading to one of the season’s clumsiest scenes. The moment occurs at Gary’s party, when Saxon watches his father swill down yet another large glass of whiskey. He asks Tim again if something is wrong back at the office, reminding him that, “My career is totally tied to yours.” Saxon has no interests, no hobbies. “I put my whole life into this basket,” he says. “Into your basket.”Given what we have seen of Saxon this season, I am not sure he is the kind of guy who would give such a self-aware speech, saying things like, “If I’m not a success, I’m nothing, and I can’t handle being nothing.” (I can, however, believe that Tim would answer his son’s very real concerns with a mumbled, “Nothing’s up, kid. We’re all good. It’s a party, get out there.”)It’s a tricky balancing act for White, trying to show more than he tells and letting the audience make assumptions. I thought about this also this week during the Bangkok scenes with Rick and Frank. I figured these two were seasoned old pros, skilled at running cons, and that they would know what they were doing when they met up with Sritala and her ailing husband, Jim (Scott Glenn), at the Hollingers’ house. Instead, Rick and Frank are surprisingly — and ridiculously — unprepared. They try to get by on improvisation; Frank in particular is really bad at it.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Richard Chamberlain, Actor in ‘Shogun’ and ‘Dr. Kildare,’ Dies at 90

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      An overnight star as Dr. Kildare in the 1960s, he achieved new acclaim two decades later as the omnipresent leading man of mini-series.Richard Chamberlain, who rose to fame as the heartthrob star of the television series “Dr. Kildare” in the early 1960s, proved his mettle by becoming a serious stage actor and went on to a new wave of acclaim as the omnipresent leading man of 1980s mini-series, died on Saturday night at his home in Waimanalo, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. He was 90.A spokesman, Harlan Boll, said the cause was complications of a stroke.Mr. Chamberlain was just 27 when he made his debut in the title role of the idealistic young intern on NBC’s “Dr. Kildare,” based on the 1930s and ’40s movie series. With his California-blond boyish good looks and low-key charm, he became an overnight star, said to be receiving 12,000 fan letters a week during the show’s five-year run (1961-66).Not long after the series ended, he moved to England, determined to shake his pretty-boy image by training as a serious actor. By 1969 he was playing Hamlet at the Birmingham Repertory Theater and surprising the British critics, who called him assured, graceful and plucky. “Anyone who comes to this production to scoff at the sight of a popular American television actor, Richard Chamberlain, playing Hamlet will be in for a deep disappointment,” a review in The Times of London declared.After five years he returned to the United States and to notable stage and screen roles, but it was television, and in particular the mini-series format, that restored his major star status. It began with a role as a Scottish trapper in the ensemble cast of the 12-part “Centennial” in 1978, as viewers began a brief but intense romance with this new programming form, which combined feature-film ambition with the many hours required to tell big stories in great detail.For Mr. Chamberlain, the phenomenon hit full force only when he played the dashing 17th-century romantic lead in “Shogun” in 1980, seducing a new generation of fans. He followed that in 1983 with his portrayal of Ralph de Bricassart, the tortured young priest in the saga “The Thorn Birds,” making him a 49-year-old sex symbol and the undeniable holder of the unofficial title “king of the mini-series.”Mr. Chamberlain received Emmy Award nominations for “The Thorn Birds” and “Shogun,” as well as for “Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story” (1985) — in which he played Raoul Wallenberg, the World War II resistance hero — and for “The Count of Monte Cristo” (1975). He won three Golden Globes during his career, for “The Thorn Birds” and “Shogun,” and as best television actor for “Dr. Kildare” in 1963.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Richard Chamberlain Was a Mega Star in TV Mini-Series ‘The Thorn Birds’ and ‘Shogun’

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      The actor, who died at 90, was the most compelling face of a maximalist, soapy television era.When mini-series ruled prime time, their maxi-est star was Richard Chamberlain.Today we call them “limited series.” But in their 20th-century heyday, under another inapt diminutive, mini-series were the megafauna of TV, lavish events that achieved the kind of cinematic spectacle that was otherwise rare in living-room entertainment of the time. They were TV specials that made TV special.In the 1970s and 1980s, a number of mini-series — “Roots,” “The Winds of War,” “Lonesome Dove” — dominated the conversation and minted stars. But perhaps no other actor is more closely associated with the genre than Chamberlain, who died on Saturday at 90, because of his star-making, swoon-worthy, emotive roles in “Shogun” and “The Thorn Birds.”I was young when Chamberlain’s mini-series aired, and “Dr. Kildare,” the 1960s medical series that established him as a heartthrob, was before my time. But his landmark roles helped form my ideas of what TV could do, and what a TV star was.His mini-series were luxury liners and time machines, whisking audiences to other lands and ages in a way that workaday series couldn’t. In “Shogun,” Chamberlain played John Blackthorne, an English navigator taken prisoner in feudal Japan; in the melodrama “The Thorn Birds,” his priest, Father Ralph de Bricassart, wrestled with his forbidden love for a young woman from an Australian sheep ranching family.Locations and budgets helped shape the experience, of course, but so did Chamberlain’s screen presence. A Shakespearean actor in between TV roles, he was able to make the manners of decades or centuries before feel warm-blooded and lived-in. He was dignified enough to carry the stories’ grandeur, expressive enough to put them over as the finest grade of pulp.Though he was a signature star of the 1980s, Chamberlain’s appeal was in a way a holdover of the 1960s and 1970s. He was emotive, with fine features that made a beautiful canvas for fervor and anguish and longing. He could rage and burst with passion, but his appeal was a different mold from the kind of beefy masculinity that would define the 1980s screen celebrity of Stallone and Schwarzenegger.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘S.N.L’: Live From New York, It’s More Military Secrets.

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      Mikey Madison hosts and Luigi Mangione, Squidward and Ashton Hall make appearances.There was no uncertainty as to whether “Saturday Night Live” would offer its own satirical take on the news that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had disclosed attack plans for a U.S. strike on Houthi militia fighters in Yemen during a text chat that mistakenly included the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg. It was only a question of how “S.N.L.” would do it.This weekend’s opening sketch featured the cast members Ego Nwodim and Sarah Sherman, as well as the guest host, Mikey Madison, as teenage girls whose group chat was interrupted by an unexpected message, read aloud by Andrew Dismukes: “FYI: Green light on Yemen raid!” he exclaimed.Dismukes, as Hegseth, continued to recite the texts he was sending (“Tomahawks airborne 15 minutes ago”) along with the emojis he was using for punctuation (“Flag emoji, fire emoji, eggplant”).“Do we know you, bro?” Madison asked. “This is Jennabelle.”“Oh, nice,” Dismukes replied. “Jennabelle from Defense, right?”Warned by Nwodim that he was in the wrong group text, Dismukes answered, “LOLOLOL could you imagine if that actually happened? Homer disappear into bush GIF.” He added that he was “sending a PDF with updated locations of all our nuclear submarines.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More