Television

Subterms

    More stories

    • 125 Shares119 Views

      in Television

      On ‘Downton Abbey,’ Maggie Smith Made an Icy Aristocrat Irresistible

      by

      The hit melodrama brought Smith the kind of fame she never wanted, but it is easy to understand why it happened.In retrospect, Maggie Smith’s brilliant, high-wire career can be seen as a protest against celebrity.As an actor, Smith, who died on Friday at 89, favored characters into which she could disappear, and the rare interviews she agreed to were awkward, unrevealing, sometimes deliberately uningratiating. In a 2013 “60 Minutes” profile, she seems almost physically racked by the journalist’s curiosity. There was one personal detail, though, that she had no problem sharing in her final years: how much she despised the fame that her most recognized part had brought down on her.“It’s ridiculous,” she told one reporter. “I was able to live a somewhat normal life until I started doing ‘Downton Abbey.’ I know that sounds funny, but I am serious. Before that I could go to all the places I wanted and see all of the things that I like, but now I can’t, which I find incredibly awful.”“Flattering,” she added, “but awful.”Did she protest too much? Or was it the peculiar nature of the attention that afflicted her? As someone who began following her from my first viewing of “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” (1969), her Oscar-winning drama, I can say I would have recognized Maggie Smith on any street anywhere. (Among other mass-cultural acts, she guest-starred on “The Carol Burnett Show.”) But would I have hailed her? What was it about “Downton Abbey” that inspired perfect strangers to lay claim to her?We can start with the show itself. From the beginning, “Downton Abbey” was conceived as a Tory fantasy — a make-believe past in which aristocrats take a searching interest in their servants’ personal lives and subsidize their eye surgery — but it came to us through the democratic medium of broadcast television. To watch it in the United States, you had only to fire up your local PBS station, where it played every Sunday night at the same time, leaving you instantly positioned to spill tea the second it was over. (As The New York Times’s “Downton” recapper, I can attest to this.)Few TV shows achieve that kind of instant saturation, so we might all be excused for thinking that these characters were ours. But how exactly did we warm to Violet Crawley, the wary and imperious dowager who despises any intrusion of democracy (America, Ireland) or modernity (telephones, swivel chairs) and who sincerely wants to know what a weekend is?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

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in Television

      ‘Saturday Night Live’: Here’s What Critics Thought of the First Episode

      by

      The late-night institution begins its 50th season on Saturday. Here’s how The New York Times and others covered its debut in 1975.It is strange to read the early press coverage of “Saturday Night Live.” No matter how much the show has changed over the years, the focus of the criticism is still much the same.“Saturday Night,” as it was known when it premiered on Oct. 11, 1975, was considered to be … rather uneven. Some saw this as a flaw, others as an endearing element. Many saw the ragtag show’s potential to change TV forever.With “Saturday Night,” which recreates the run-up to the first episode, currently in theaters and the show’s 50th season beginning — when else? — Saturday night, here is a look back at how the world greeted the arrival of “S.N.L.”‘Simon and Garfunkel Reunion on NBC’s “Saturday Night”’The New York Times, Oct. 20, 1975The Times did not review the first episode. But the critic John J. O’Connor did write about the second, and he included his thoughts about the premiere. He disliked the inaugural host George Carlin’s “pretentious comedy lectures” and the juxtaposition of fake and genuine commercials. “Even an offbeat showcase needs quality, an ingredient conspicuously absent from the dreadfully uneven comedy efforts of the new series,” he wrote. O’Connor admitted that he missed the first hour of the second episode because of “an unusually good dinner on Long Island” and travel challenges. So he highlighted a Simon and Garfunkel reunion on the show, which he did see. Lorne Michaels complained about this in “Live from New York,” a 2002 oral history of the show.‘Sprightly Mix Brightens NBC’s “Saturday Night”’The New York Times, Nov. 30, 1975By the fifth episode, with Lily Tomlin hosting, O’Connor changed his tune. The format now worked, more of the humor was now “on target,” and the Not Ready for Prime Time Players were “incredibly adept” at going live. The show had become “the most creative and encouraging thing to happen in American TV comedy since ‘Your Show of Shows,’” he wrote. Could Tomlin’s hosting have anything to do with that assessment? Perhaps. In the spirit of full disclosure, O’Connor confessed to being “helplessly in love” with the comedian. (“It’s best to get that kind of thing out in the open.”)Lily Tomlin, center, with Gilda Radner on “Saturday Night” in 1976. Tomlin was a popular early host of the show.NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal, via Getty ImagesWe 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

    • 150 Shares179 Views

      in Television

      Desi Lydic Wants to Be in Central Park, Listening to Chappell Roan

      by

      “I love getting out and about early in the day, getting some fresh air and sunlight and seeing the city,” the “Daily Show” host said of her morning ritual.In one of her auditions for “The Daily Show,” the comedian and actress Desi Lydic did an impression that, as she put it, “was kind of going for that ex-lawyer, four-time beauty pageant winner and overqualified but leggy Fox News blowhard.”It worked, and in 2015, Lydic joined the satirical Comedy Central news show as a correspondent.Then, in 2023, Trevor Noah left as host and Jon Stewart returned to the role he’d originated, but for only one night a week. That left three remaining slots at the desk. Lydic’s hand shot up before she had even really thought about it.“Having him back at the show is pretty awesome for the rest of us for a million reasons,” she said of Stewart. “One of them being that it’s a master class in real life every single week to watch him throughout the day and to learn by just kind of absorbing.”Although she initially thought hosting would overwhelm her with anxiety, Lydic said, “it’s more excitement than sheer panic.” The show won the Emmy for best variety talk series earlier this month.In a video call from her parents’ home in Louisville, Ky., Lydic — who lives in Manhattan with her husband and 8-year-old son — talked about clouds in her coffee, finding the funny on “Friends” and the thing she looks at every time she goes onstage.These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1‘Bird By Bird’ by Anne LamottIt talks about the struggle of being a writer, and she’s so brutally honest about how torturous it can be: “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” It’s the absolute best guide for not only creative endeavors, but for life. It also acts as a solid parenting manual.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

    • 88 Shares189 Views

      in Television

      Calling ‘Survivor’ Contestants From Tim Walz’s Motorcade

      by

      Covering an election year can be stressful. But instead of binge-watching “Survivor” to decompress, two reporters wrote about the politics — or, lack thereof — on the show instead.Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.When I first heard that Jon Lovett, the prominent political podcast host and former speechwriter for Barack Obama, would be a contestant on the new season of “Survivor,” I pleaded with my editor to write about it.(To answer your question, yes, “that show” is still on.)Covering politics during a tense election year in a closely divided country is often deadly serious, and rife with animosity. This seemed like an opportunity to write something lighter.To my surprise, my editor was game.I have vague memories of watching “Survivor” as a kid with my parents in the early 2000s, somewhere around the tail end of the show’s initial run of popularity. I rediscovered it when I started high school in 2012 — season 25 was airing — and was hooked. I began watching religiously, first on my own, and now with a group of friends on Wednesday nights, when the episodes air on CBS.It’s a remarkable run for a series with a relatively simple premise: A group of strangers are marooned on a remote tropical island and must work together to build shelter, forage for food and endure the elements, all while forming alliances and voting someone off the show each week. Though “Survivor” has, on occasion, injected new twists to keep seasons feeling fresh, something about the original format has stuck with viewers like me.For all the various real-life societal issues that have played out on the “Survivor” beach — racial tensions, discussions over gender and sexuality, generational divides — the announcement about Mr. Lovett, one of the hosts of the liberal podcast “Pod Save America,” made me realize that partisan politics had never been prominently featured on the show.I knew my colleague on the Politics desk, Alexandra Berzon, was also a “Survivor” fan, and would be eager to collaborate. At a Wisconsin bar one night in July, after a long day covering the Republican National Convention, Ali and I huddled in a corner, geeking out over “Survivor” factoids while our colleagues swapped political gossip.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

    • 125 Shares149 Views

      in Television

      Jessel Taank is Back For More on ‘RHONY’ Season 2

      by

      Early on a Monday evening during New York Fashion Week, Jessel Taank breezed into the Sabyasachi boutique in the West Village, passing a life-size elephant sculpture near the sidewalk. But the “Real Housewives of New York City” star couldn’t quite say what it was doing there.“Good question,” she said with a laugh. “There’s apparently a great elephant migration that I wasn’t aware happens this time of year, and Sabyasachi is celebrating that tonight.”In fact, The Great Elephant Migration is a touring art installation featuring a herd of 100 faux pachyderms, handcrafted in Tamil Nadu from a dried invasive shrub. (Actual Indian elephant migration in India happens year-round.)Such obliviousness to details seems on brand for Ms. Taank, 41. After all, who could forget when she called TriBeCa “up and coming” on the last season of the “Real Housewives of New York City”?Ms. Taank with an art installation outside the Sabyaschi fashion week party she attended on a recent Monday night. Lanna Apisukh for The New York TimesBut when she commits these faux pas, she does so with a disarming smile, one that has won over prickly fans. By the end of the show’s 14th season — and the first of the cast reboot — it was clear that she had received the villain edit, criticized for what came off as willful ignorance and bratty behavior. But she had also found a fan base so ardent that, according to Rolling Stone, its members call themselves “Taank Tops.”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

    • 113 Shares129 Views

      in Television

      Jessel Taank is Back For More on Season Two

      by

      Early on a Monday evening during New York Fashion Week, Jessel Taank breezed into the Sabyasachi boutique in the West Village, passing a life-size elephant sculpture near the sidewalk. But the “Real Housewives of New York City” star couldn’t quite say what it was doing there.“Good question,” she said with a laugh. “There’s apparently a great elephant migration that I wasn’t aware happens this time of year, and Sabyasachi is celebrating that tonight.”In fact, The Great Elephant Migration is a touring art installation featuring a herd of 100 faux pachyderms, handcrafted in Tamil Nadu from a dried invasive shrub. (Actual Indian elephant migration in India happens year-round.)Such obliviousness to details seems on brand for Ms. Taank, 41. After all, who could forget when she called TriBeCa “up and coming” on the last season of the “Real Housewives of New York City”?Ms. Taank with an art installation outside the Sabyaschi fashion week party she attended on a recent Monday night. Lanna Apisukh for The New York TimesBut when she commits these faux pas, she does so with a disarming smile, one that has won over prickly fans. By the end of the show’s 14th season — and the first of the cast reboot — it was clear that she had received the villain edit, criticized for what came off as willful ignorance and bratty behavior. But she had also found a fan base so ardent that, according to Rolling Stone, its members call themselves “Taank Tops.”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

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in Television

      Late Night Roasts New York Mayor Eric Adams Over His Indictment

      by

      Jimmy Fallon joked that it’s “always fun when the city mimics the exact plot of a Batman 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.You Never Forget Your FirstNew York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted on five federal charges of bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations.“Yeah, it’s always fun when the city mimics the exact plot of a Batman movie,” Jimmy Fallon said on Thursday.“Yep, Adams is the first sitting mayor of New York City to be indicted. It’s shocking. When Rudy Giuliani heard that, he was, like, ‘That can’t be right.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Well, it turns out Eric Adams was right — crime is way up in New York City.” — SETH MEYERS“Imagine having to call Rudy to ask, ‘You never got indicted as mayor — what’s your secret?’” — SETH MEYERS“I’ll bet he’s really regretting holding that press conference with a trash can full of shredded evidence.” — SETH MEYERS“Can someone check if there’s bottle service at Rikers?” — DESI LYDICThe Punchiest Punchlines (More Eric Adams Edition)“New York Mayor Eric Adams was indicted yesterday on federal criminal charges, and that distant laughter you hear is coming from every rat in New York City: ‘[imitating rat] You thought you was gonna take us out? Now what, wise guy?’” — SETH MEYERS“Fellow Democrats are calling on him to resign, whereas Republicans are urging him to run for governor of North Carolina.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“That’s right, Eric Adams was indicted yesterday on federal criminal charges. Oh, please let his little robot cop do the arrest. It’ll be like when Allison Williams realized she shouldn’t have built M3gan.” — SETH MEYERS“Now, to be fair, Adams is, of course, innocent until proven guilty — although it would be a lot easier to believe he wasn’t doing crimes if he didn’t dress like a gangster from ‘Guys & Dolls.’” — DESI LYDIC“It’s a sad day in New York City when foreign nations are bribing the mayor to rush permits. That is the mob’s job, OK? Those should be American bribes!” — DESI LYDICThe Bits Worth WatchingStephen Colbert harmonized with the country singer Chris Stapleton on Thursday’s “Late Show.”Also, Check This Out“We really did consider each other brother and sister, even though I might have had a small crush on her as well, which was weird,” John Francis Daley said of his relationship with Linda Cardellini.Chris Haston/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal, via Getty ImagesPaul Feig, Judd Apatow, and several cast and crew members reflect on the sleeper hit status of “Freaks and Geeks” as the show celebrates its 25th anniversary. More

    • 138 Shares189 Views

      in Television

      ‘The Queen of the Villains’ Is a Complex Japanese Wrestling Drama

      by

      The five-part Netflix series tells the story of a female wrestler in the 1980s who might have gone a little too deep into character.Yuriyan Retriever stars as Dump Matsumoto in “The Queen of the Villains.”NetflixDump Matsumoto was a reviled — and thus beloved — heel in the All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling league in the 1980s. “The Queen of the Villains” (on Netflix, in Japanese with subtitles, or dubbed) is a colorful five-part scripted drama based loosely on her young life and early career, and it traces both her rise and the increasing popularity of women’s pro wrestling in Japan at the time.The show lands more as a boppy superhero origin story than as an earnest biopic: It is at times bright and exaggerated, a tidy tale about messy people and an absolute bonanza of retro tracksuits. Yuriyan Retriever stars as Dump, though for much of the show she is simply Kaoru, a young woman with nowhere to put all her anger and ambition. Her father is an abusive drunk who drifts in and out of her life, stealing from her mother and belittling her and her younger sister. As a tween, she learns that her father has a secret other family — including another daughter also named Kaoru. It’s enough to make a good girl go bad.Our Kaoru falls in love with wrestling, with being encouraged to be strong, tough and violent. A grim determination to simply keep going is as powerful as any suplex, and the ring is one of few places where being a larger woman is an asset.But it isn’t always easy for Kaoru to keep track of what’s real and what’s just for show, and as she dissolves into her Dump persona, some other wrestlers recoil. It’s all a fun sisterhood until Dump brings a chain into the ring and starts choking people. And few friendships survive repeated stabbings in the scalp with a fork.“Queen” itself reflects Dump’s ambiguous realities. We’re never sure how cranked up the artifice of it all is, how much of a match is choreographed, the degree to which the wrestlers agree on what is fake. Dump wrestles in a few “hair matches,” in which the winner cuts the loser’s hair, but she also holds a colleague down and shaves her hair outside the ring, at their dorm. Inept, indifferent management leaves the wrestlers to establish standards on their own. But they don’t always agree on what’s safe and acceptable, or on whose star-making moves should get priority.Appropriately for a show about pro wrestling, “Queen” feels both illicit and wholesome. Retriever’s performance captures Kaoru’s innocence and ferocity — the turmoil of being proud of and afraid of what’s inside you. More