Television

Subterms

    More stories

    • 63 Shares159 Views

      in Television

      ‘Constellation’ Review: Alice in Wonderspace

      by

      A sci-fi mystery from Apple TV+ turns quantum physics into a dark fairy tale.In “Constellation” on Apple TV+, the Swedish actress Noomi Rapace stars as Jo Ericsson, an astronaut whose time on the International Space Station takes a tragic and mysterious turn. The superbly capable Jo battles overwhelming odds to get back to Earth and to decipher why she feels so out of place once she’s there. But the real hero of the story — its emotional center and vigilant conscience — is Jo’s young daughter, a solemn girl with a significant name: Alice. To understand what’s up with her mom, she’ll have to go through the looking glass.The uneven but seductively spooky “Constellation,” which premieres with three of its eight episodes on Wednesday, is a space adventure, mystery and family drama spun from the unstable fabric of quantum physics. People, places and events look different from episode to episode and scene to scene; when a NASA scientist tells Jo that curiosity killed the cat, he is definitely referring to the poor animal inside Schrödinger’s box.In storytelling terms, though, the real quantum entanglement is that of straight science-fiction action with dark fairy tale. The show’s creator and writer, Peter Harness, working with the directors Michelle MacLaren, Oliver Hirschbiegel and Joseph Cedar, carries off both with aplomb, and maintains a dry tone and an appealing atmosphere of foreboding. The mechanics of the narrative, as “Constellation” shifts through its different gears, can be creaky, but the show continually draws you in.The main action begins with a bang, as an unidentified bit of debris cripples the space station during an experiment that seeks “a new state of matter.” Across two episodes the echoes of Alfonso Cuarón’s “Gravity” are heavy as Jo, left alone in the station, deals with a cascade of problems while trying to escape in a Soyuz capsule. Where “Gravity” ended, though, “Constellation” is just getting started. The resourcefulness and sanity Jo displays in space define her for the audience, so that we stay on her side when things start to go wrong on Earth.Jo’s memories — of names, cars, relationships — do not completely jibe with what she finds when she gets home to Sweden, and the show slides from adventure into increasingly paranoid thriller, smoothly though perhaps with more time-jumping confusion and open questions than some viewers will have patience for. It plays fair, however — by Episode 6 things begin to come clear. At which point Jo and Alice head into the dark northern woods.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

    • 163 Shares179 Views

      in Television

      For Carla Hall, It’s Been a Bumpy Climb to a ‘Top Chef’ Life

      by

      Carla Hall’s tarot card reading was running long. Astrology, numerology, psychics, the Chinese zodiac — she’s open to all manner of metaphysical messaging.I slipped off my shoes in the foyer of her century-old house in the Takoma neighborhood of Washington, D.C., out of respect for a recent million-dollar gut renovation. Then I went to wait in her airy kitchen, which happens to have the most expertly arranged, hand-labeled spice drawer I have ever encountered.Ms. Hall finally bounded down the stairs with news from the reading. “Oh, my God,” she said. “It was so good. All stars point to ‘this is your year.’’’Indeed, Ms. Hall seems to be everywhere. She’s selling $88 carrot cakes and nesting bowls decorated with okra flowers from her Sweet Heritage line on QVC. She made croquettes from Doritos at the Super Bowl’s Taste of the N.F.L. event. She is luminous in a recent People magazine spread marking her 60th birthday, which arrives in May. (She’s a Taurus.)And of course, she’s on TV, the medium that made her a food star almost from the moment she was introduced to the world as “kooky Carla” in the fifth season of “Top Chef” in 2008. This year, she’ll judge Food Network baking championships, appear on “Beat Bobby Flay” and serve as a guest judge when “Top Chef” returns in March.Ms. Hall shot to fame as contestant who meditated regularly and sang a lot on the fifth season of “Top Chef.”Giovanni Rufino/Bravo/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

    • 113 Shares199 Views

      in Television

      Jon Stewart Takes Notes from Tucker Carlson’s Russia Coverage

      by

      “I have much to learn,” Stewart said. “‘Disguise your deception and capitulation to power as noble and moral and based in freedom.’ Yes, master.”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.‘The Literal Price of Freedom’Jon Stewart was back on “The Daily Show” on Monday, a week after returning to the desk for the first time in nine years. He called the response to his first show back “universally glowing” before playing clips of Democrats panning his jokes about President Biden and saying they would not watch him host.“I just think it’s better to deal head-on with what’s an apparent issue to people,” Stewart said, defending himself. “I mean, we’re just talking here!”“It was one [expletive] show! It was 20 minutes! I did 20 minutes of one [expletive] show! But I guess, as the famous saying goes, democracy dies in discussion.” — JON STEWART“Where do I go to study the particulars of unquestioning propaganda? I would need mentorship!” Stewart said before rolling a clip of Tucker Carlson’s interview with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.“Saints be praised, for Professor Tucker Aloysius Mayflower Kennebunkport Backgammon Carlson III has arrived.” — JON STEWARTStewart took notes about Carlson referring to himself as a journalist (“Lie about what your job is,” Stewart said as he scribbled) and saying his duty was to “inform people” (“Lie about what your duty is.”)“I have much to learn — ‘Disguise your deception and capitulation to power as noble and moral and based in freedom.’ Yes, master.” — JON STEWARTCarlson’s coverage of Russia included a trip to a grocery store, where he said the low price of food would “radicalize” viewers against American leaders.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

    • 150 Shares159 Views

      in Television

      What’s on TV This Week: ‘Dolly Parton’s Pet Gala’ and ‘Crime Nation’

      by

      The country singer hosts a special that involves a dog runway. The CW airs a new anthology series about true crime.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. 19 – 25. Details and times are subject to change.MondayTHE PROPOSAL (2009) 5:30 p.m. on FX. Though this movie starring Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock is marketed as a romantic comedy, it really could be a horror movie. Imagine your mean boss has proposed that you commit a crime for her — the penalties of which are a potential fine of $250,00 and five years in prison. Scary, right? The rom-com follows the book editor Margaret Tate (Bullock), who convinces her assistant Andrew (Reynolds) to marry her so that she can get a fiancé visa and avoid being deported to Canada. While Bullock’s character lacks a certain friendly, polite Canadian charm, Reynolds (like me, a real-life Canadian) is oozing with it as the accommodating assistant whose family lives in Alaska.TuesdayCRIME NATION 8 p.m. on The CW. This new anthology series is the first original true crime series from the CW. Each two-hour episode focuses on a crime that was widely covered on social and traditional media, including the death of Gabby Petito, and the Gilgo Beach and Delphi murders; armchair experts, podcast hosts and true crime followers discuss the cases.THE GOOD DOCTOR 10 p.m. on ABC. This is the seventh and final season of the medical show starring Freddie Highmore as Dr. Shaun Murphy, a brilliant surgeon who has autism. Because Dr. Murphy just became a father, it is likely that this last season will focus on his new role as a dad as well as his sometimes complicated relationship with his patients and hospital colleagues.WednesdayDOLLY PARTON’S PET GALA 9 p.m. on CBS. Dolly Parton hosts a two-hour special devoted to dogs featuring performances by country singers like Lainey Wilson, Carly Pearce and Chris Janson, as well as KC of KC and the Sunshine Band — all singing classic Dolly songs. In a preview, the country legend explains that she loves dogs and wanted to show all the things they can do, from fun to more serious work. Puppies are set to walk a runway while modeling the latest styles in doggy-fashion and accompanying special guests include Kristen Bell, Neil Patrick Harris, Jessica Simpson and more.ThursdayLindsay Hubbard and Carl Radke on “Summer House.”Bravo/Eugene GologurskyWe 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 Shares119 Views

      in Television

      ‘True Detective’ Season 4, Episode 6 Recap: Stories Are Stories

      by

      The season ended with a finale that provided plenty of answers while clinging to a bit of mystery.Season 4, Episode 6: Part 6One of the tricky parts of a ghost story like “True Detective: Night Country” is the banal, inevitable business of having to explain events that were once teasingly inexplicable. It is more haunting, for example, to imagine a supernatural force turning terrified scientists into an Arctic “corpsicle” than to learn that they were commandeered by a vigilante band of Indigenous women taking justice into their own hands.This is the risk the creator Issa López has courted all season, as the show’s procedural elements have been intermingled with obscure symbols, hidden traumas and outright ghostly hallucinations. In order to solve the practical mysteries facing Danvers and Navarro, it would have to come crashing back to earth.Yet the achievement of this flawed but compelling finale is that López succeeds in having her cake and eating it, too. The important whodunit questions about the deaths of Annie K. and the scientists have concrete answers, but she’s unwilling to sell out the spiritual and psychological unrest that’s unique to this locale.From the beginning, the strongest element of “Night Country” has been its evocation of Ennis, Alaska, as this northernmost outpost of humanity, a border town to oblivion. There have been several moments, including a few in the finale, where a character is one step away from disappearing into nothingness, like Werner Herzog’s deranged penguin in “Encounters at the End of the World.”The big revelations start hitting before the opening credits here, as Danvers and Navarro bust into the ice cave system in the middle of a storm that looks formidable even by Ennis standards. Yet López is still unwilling to part with the uncanniness that’s been such an important piece of the intrigue: As they make their way through the caves, Navarro peels off through a narrow crevasse, certain that she “hears” Annie leading her to where they need to go. That’s more than a detective’s instincts at work; that’s a sixth sense. And López validates the moment when the two discover the secret lab where Annie was murdered.The connection between Annie’s case and the dead scientists had been something Danvers and Navarro had worked hard to connect, from the romantic relationship between Annie and Raymond Clark to the shady financial arrangement between the mine and the lab, which needed help in finessing its pollution numbers. When they find the underground facility and capture Raymond, their suspicions are confirmed, though the details are a little surprising.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 Shares179 Views

      in Music

      Founder of the New Christy Minstrels Randy Sparks Dies at 90

      by

      With a keen eye for young talent, he helped boost the careers of Steve Martin, John Denver, Kenny Rogers and many other performers.Randy Sparks, a creative impresario whose musical ensemble, the New Christy Minstrels, helped to jump-start the folk revival of the early 1960s and launched the careers of performers like John Denver, Steve Martin and Kenny Rogers, died on Sunday at an assisted-living facility in San Diego. He was 90.His son Kevin confirmed the death. Mr. Sparks had been living on his 168-acre ranch in Jenny Lind, Calif., northeast of San Francisco, until a few days before his death.Mr. Sparks in Los Angeles in 2006. He was well known as a singer, songwriter and actor in Southern California when he formed the New Christy Minstrels.Sherry Rayn Barnett/ Michael Ochs Archives, via Getty ImagesBefore Beatlemania and the British invasion revolutionized American popular music, folk music dominated the airwaves — and perhaps no group was more ubiquitous than the New Christy Minstrels. They were a nearly constant presence on television and sold an estimated two million albums in their first three years.Mr. Sparks was already well known as a singer, songwriter and actor in Southern California when he drew together nine other musicians in 1961 to form the group, which took its name from a popular stage show in the 1840s led by Edwin P. Christy. Mr. Sparks was quick to note that his group otherwise shared nothing with its namesake, a white group that had promoted the music of Stephen Foster in blackface.His group was a hit from the start; its debut album, “Presenting the New Christy Minstrels” (1962), won the Grammy Award for best performance by a chorus and stayed on the Billboard chart for two years.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

    • 100 Shares99 Views

      in Television

      For Donald Trump, the Recriminations Will Be Televised

      by

      The former president’s trials aren’t being aired. That isn’t stopping him from turning them into a political reality show.The civil-fraud case against Donald J. Trump’s businesses in New York, in which he was ordered to pay a penalty of $355 million, was not televised. Neither was his civil trial for the defamation of E. Jean Carroll. Nor — barring an unlikely change in federal court policy — will be his looming federal election-interference trial.But outside the courtroom, the show goes on.In each case, Mr. Trump has sought out the cameras, or brought in his own, to offer a stream-of-consciousness heave of legal complaints and re-election arguments. In the process, the former reality-TV host and current presidential candidate has turned his many legal cases into one-sided TV productions and campaign ads.To TV producers, because Mr. Trump is a former president, a candidate and high-profile defendant, his on-camera tirades are news. But there is also a kind of transaction at work. TV news craves conflict and active visuals. There are only so many times you can show a motorcade, or reporters cooling their heels in the street. Mr. Trump’s appearances give them sound, fury and B-roll.At the same time, Mr. Trump gets the kind of unfiltered access to the airwaves that networks were, once upon a brief time, wary of giving a candidate notorious for fabrications and conspiracy theories.On the day a judge set a trial date for his Manhattan criminal case stemming from a hush-money payment to a porn star, cable news networks took him live as he called the case a Biden-campaign plot to steal the election: “This is their way of cheating this time. Last time, they had a different way.”On Friday evening, after the civil-fraud ruling, he spoke to the cameras at his home and private club Mar-a-Lago, claiming that the case (brought by the New York attorney general) “all comes out of Biden,” accusing the judge of corruption, citing his election poll numbers and lamenting that “the migrants come in and they take over New York.”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

      ‘Genius: MLK/X’ Offers Portraits of the Icons as Vital Young Men

      by

      “We wanted to take them off the T-shirts and make them real,” said Gina Prince-Bythewood, who created the series with her husband Reggie Rock Bythewood.The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are among American history’s most thoroughly chronicled figures, their voices and mannerisms captured forever on recording after recording, their lives picked over in book after book.By himself, Malcolm X has been the subject of two Pulitzer-winning biographies in the past 13 years and just last year Jonathan Eig’s “King: A Life” landed a spot on Barack Obama’s yearly best-books list. Both men adorn countless T-shirts, posters and memes. They aren’t just people; they’re also symbols — of civil rights, of social progress, of a decade that saw many of its heroes murdered.But symbols don’t make for particularly compelling drama. So when Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Aaron Pierre signed on to play King and Malcolm X, respectively, in the new National Geographic series “Genius: MLK/X,” which premiered earlier this month, they knew their imperative was to make their iconic characters as human as possible and leave more famous portrayals in the past.“The first thing I had to do, and the first thing I needed everyone around me to do, was to stop speaking about them as icons,” Harrison said in a video interview last month alongside Pierre. “I had to live in the moment that they existed. They did not know who they were or where they were going.”Gina Prince-Bythewood, who, with her husband, Reggie Rock Bythewood, are among the executive producers of the series, put it this way: “We wanted to take them off the T-shirts and make them real and tangible for an audience. And to do that, you need to show their humanity.”Jayme Lawson, as Betty Shabazz, and Pierre in “Genius.” The series emphasizes the strength and support of the men’s wives.Richard DuCree/National GeographicWe 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