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      ‘Bridgerton’ Takes On Race. But Its Core Is Escapism.

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s Notebook‘Bridgerton’ Takes On Race. But Its Core Is Escapism.The Netflix hit departs from the homogeneous casting of most period drama, imagining an 18th-century Britain with Black royalty and aristocrats.Adjoa Andoh and Regé-Jean Page confer in an episode of the Netflix series “Bridgerton.”Credit…Liam Danniel/NetflixJan. 5, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ET“We were two separate societies divided by color until a king fell in love with one of us,” the quick-witted Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) tells her protégé, the Duke of Hastings. “Look at everything it is doing for us, allowing us to become.” She insists, “Love, Your Grace, conquers all.”Appearing in the fourth episode of “Bridgerton,” the first series produced by Shonda Rhimes as part of her powerhouse Netflix deal, this conversation between the show’s main Black characters is the first explicit mention of race in a story that revolves around the duke, a Black man named Simon Basset (Regé-Jean Page), and his passionate courtship of Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest daughter in the wealthy, white and titled Bridgerton family.The show’s casting diversity is its most immediately striking quality, not just in Black aristocratic characters like the duke and Lady Danbury, but also in the entrepreneurial Madame Genevieve Delacroix (Kathryn Drysdale) and the working-class couple Will and Alice Mondrich (Martins Imhangbe and Emma Naomi). All of them are central to the complicated social caste system that make up the show’s version of early 1800s London.“Bridgerton” is not Rhimes’s first dalliance with a multiracial cast in a British period drama. In 2017, she produced “Still Star-Crossed” on ABC, a story that began after the deaths of Romeo and Juliet and focused on their cousins Benvolio Montague and Rosaline Capulet, who were forced to marry in order to heal the family rift. Though Benvolio and Rosaline are intentionally cast as a interracial couple, race was neither a point of contention nor grist for social commentary. Instead, viewers were asked to suspend our contemporary racial perceptions in order to accept the colorblind Verona of the past. (This strategy, among others, was largely unsuccessful — “Still Star-Crossed” was canceled after only one season.)“Bridgerton” is set in an early 19th century Britain ruled by Queen Charlotte, who is portrayed by Golda Rosheuvel.Credit…Liam Daniel/NetflixIn contrast, the characters of “Bridgerton” never seem to forget their blackness but instead understand it as one of the many facets of their identity, while still thriving in Regency society. The show’s success proves that people of color do not have to be erased or exist solely as victims of racism in order for a British costume drama to flourish.Chris Van Dusen, the “Bridgerton” showrunner, was a writer on Rhimes’s “Grey’s Anatomy” before going on to be a co-executive producer on “Scandal,” a show that both recognized but did not entirely revolve around the interracial tensions of Olivia Pope’s romantic relationships. Applying that same approach to his adaptations of Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton novels, Van Dusen places us in an early 19th century Britain ruled by a Black woman, Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel).“It made me wonder what that could have looked like,” Van Dusen told The New York Times in a recent feature about the show. “Could she have used her power to elevate other people of color in society? Could she have given them titles and lands and dukedoms?”Such a move pushes back against the racial homogeneity of hit period dramas like “Downton Abbey,” which that show’s executive producer, Gareth Neame insisted was necessary for historical accuracy. “It’s not a multicultural time,” he said in a 2014 interview with Vulture. “We can’t suddenly start populating the show with people from all sorts of ethnicities. It wouldn’t be correct.”“Bridgerton” provides a blueprint for British period shows in which Black characters can thrive within the melodramatic story lines, extravagant costumes and bucolic beauty that make such series so appealing, without having to be servants or enslaved. This could in turn create openings for gifted performers who have avoided them in the past.“I can’t do ‘Downton Abbey,’ can’t be in ‘Victoria,’ can’t be in ‘Call the Midwife,’” the actress Thandie Newton told the Sunday Times of London in 2017. “Well, I could, but I don’t want to play someone who’s being racially abused.” She went on, “There just seems to be a desire for stuff about the royal family, stuff from the past, which is understandable, but it just makes it slim pickings for people of color.”For all its innovations, “Bridgerton” has its own blind spots. I found it strange that it is only the Black characters who speak about race, a creative decision that risks reinforcing the very white privilege it seeks to undercut by enabling its white characters to be free of racial identity.Stephanie Levi-John plays a Black woman in Tudor England in “The Spanish Princess.”Credit…Nick Briggs/Starz, via Associated PressWhen Lady Danbury expresses her optimistic belief in the power of love, the duke is more circumspect, countering that Black progress is fragile and dependent on the whims of whichever white king is in charge. But to actually see narrative evidence of this precariousness, you have to turn to other recent British period dramas that featured integral Black characters, like “The Spanish Princess” and “Sanditon.”Taking place in Tudor England, “The Spanish Princess” on Starz features Stephanie Levi-John as a Black woman named Lina who came to England as Catherine of Aragon’s lady-in-waiting. Based on an actual historical figure, the show thoughtfully fictionalized her struggle between her loyalty to Catherine and her love for her Moorish husband, Oviedo, and their twin boys as xenophobia rises throughout the kingdom, and Catherine’s marriage to King Henry VIII unravels.The series is set in the 16th century during a historical epoch in which slavery and race were not inextricably linked to each other. Here, Lina’s brown skin merely indicates her foreignness rather than marks her oppression, giving us insight into how such differences were interpreted and experienced before anti-Black racism was codified in Europe (and the Americas) as a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.By the time we reach the early 19th-century world of PBS’s “Sanditon,” however, the long arm of the slave trade has reached the British seaside resort of the title. Adapted by Andrew Davies from an unfinished novel by Jane Austen, “Sanditon” expands the story of Miss Georgiana Lambe, Austen’s first Black character. Described briefly (and offensively) in the manuscript as a “mulatto” born to a white slaveholding father and enslaved Black mother in the British colony of Antigua, Georgiana in the series is an heiress, played by Crystal Clarke, whose wealth and exotic beauty make her the most sought after young woman in England’s south coast. Ultimately, I found Georgiana’s rarefied status to be the show’s biggest representational challenge: As I reveled in her splendor, I also found myself forgetting the enslaved labor that created it.Crystal Clarke as Georgiana Lambe in “Sanditon,” a series adapted from an unfinished novel by Jane Austen.Credit…Simon Ridgway/PBSBut racial trauma remains. Despite the attention that she receives, Georgiana is ultimately alienated in England because of her race, an experience that I found more realistic than Marina Thompson’s (Ruby Barker), another biracial debutante who also finds herself alone at court in “Bridgerton.”Other complex portrayals of Britain’s participation in the slave trade can be found in Amma Asante’s standout 2013 movie “Belle,” or in Pippa Bennett-Warner’s character on Hulu’s “Harlots,” who lives as a free but formerly enslaved Black woman in London in the 1780s.I’m also looking forward to the mini-series “The Long Song,” debuting later this month on PBS. Based on Andrea Levy’s novel of the same name, it unfolds at the dawn of emancipation in Jamaica in the 1830s. It is another story of England and the central role its Black subjects played in building its wealth and grandeur under King George and Queen Charlotte’s rule, though we’ll probably see far fewer corsets and society balls.By avoiding both slavery and the fervent British abolition movement that flourished in London in the early 19th century, “Bridgerton” ultimately opts for “Downton” escapism over a nuanced exploration of real-time racial dynamics, mostly relegating such aspects to the story’s past. In flashbacks we learn that the first Duke of Hastings was ruinously consumed by his newfound status, demanding, to the point of verbal abuse, absolute perfection from his wife, who dies in childbirth, and his son, who stutters as a child. (Shades of Papa Pope of “Scandal,” who once admonished his daughter, “You have to be twice as good as them to get half of what they have.”)With more seasons presumably to come, given the show’s popularity, I’m curious how far “Bridgerton” is willing to depart from Quinn’s novels in order to fill in the worlds of its other Black characters, especially Black women like Lady Danbury, Queen Charlotte and Madame Delacroix. They are the show’s most intriguing characters and they remain mostly unexplored — will they eventually be afforded as much complexity as the duke? As Daphne’s entire family?In a society in which gender and sexual mores dominate the actions and attitudes of all its characters, I want to see how these women learned to navigate those same structures differently shaped than everyone else. Because despite Lady Danbury’s beliefs that love conquers everything, I could not help but think that history ends up validating the duke’s skepticism and his sense that Black progress is always a fragile thing.But who knows? Maybe if I knew how Lady Danbury or Queen Charlotte came to be, I’d be so convinced that I’d finally be able to revel in a past that I haven’t quite seen myself in before.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Surging Virus Prompts Call to Halt In-Person TV and Film Production

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySurging Virus Prompts Call to Halt In-Person TV and Film ProductionSAG-AFTRA, the union representing 160,000 people who work in the industry, seeks a “temporary hold” in Los Angeles.A film crew in Los Angeles on Nov. 6. Credit…Etienne Laurent/EPA, via ShutterstockJan. 4, 2021Seven people working on “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” which was being shot at an NBC Universal stage in Studio City, Calif., tested positive for the coronavirus this fall. So did nine people working on the Netflix series “Colin in Black & White” in Gardena. And the Los Angeles County Public Health Department reported that a dozen people working on the sitcom “Young Sheldon” in Burbank got the virus, too.The entertainment industry is so vital to Los Angeles that film and television production were both allowed to continue even after outdoor dining was banned. But now, with the coronavirus surging across California and overwhelming hospitals, unions and industry groups are calling for in-person production to be suspended.“Southern California hospitals are facing a crisis the likes of which we have never seen before,” Gabrielle Carteris, the president of SAG-AFTRA, the union representing 160,000 people who work in film, television and radio, said in a statement. “Patients are dying in ambulances waiting for treatment because hospital emergency rooms are overwhelmed. This is not a safe environment for in-person production right now.”The union was joined in its call for a “temporary hold on in-person production in Southern California” by groups representing producers and advertisers.The recommendation, which was announced on Sunday, came as officials said that major studios in the area had already extended a standard holiday-related pause in production until at least mid-January in the hope that the number of new cases would subside by then, freeing up space in hospitals and intensive care units.By Monday night, “The Late Late Show” announced in a tweet that it had moved its production back into James Corden’s garage until it was “safe to return to our studio.” And a spokeswoman for “Jimmy Kimmel Live” confirmed a Deadline report that the Los Angeles-based late show would film remotely for the next two weeks. Officials from the groups calling for a pause — which also included a committee representing commercial advertisers and advertising agencies — said that they were encouraging their members to stay at home and not accept any on-set employment for several weeks. They noted that even workers who do not contract the virus put themselves at risk of becoming injured by stunts, falls or other mishaps, and that they could find it difficult to get treatment at hospitals.“It is too hard to say right now when the situation may improve,” said David White, national executive director of SAG-AFTRA.The Producers Guild of America said in its own statement that it was encouraging everyone “to delay production until the county health officials indicate it’s safe to resume.”Like sports, theater and much of the entertainment industry, film and television production has been forced to endure a turbulent year of stops and starts. The pandemic caused what was essentially a global shutdown in March, followed by a gradual phased reopening over the summer with a laundry list of new safety protocols in place that forced executives to reimagine how to make blockbuster movies safely, or how to finish uncompleted television seasons.The measures they have taken could not entirely stop the spread of the virus, however, and throughout the summer and fall, stars including Robert Pattinson and Dwayne Johnson tested positive. Mr. Pattinson’s positive test forced filming of “The Batman” at studios outside London to shut down. And last month, an audio recording of Tom Cruise emerged in which the actor could be heard scolding crew members on the set of “Mission: Impossible 7” for not following Covid-19 protocols.The restart, uneven and incomplete, has also forced the industry to slash budgets and lay off employees. FilmLA, the official film office for the city and county of Los Angeles, reported that filming in the area fell by more than 54 percent from July to September compared with the same period the previous year. (In New York City, only 35 of the nearly 80 series that were filming or planning to film were back at work by early November.)Then came the wave of infections that have staggered California since Thanksgiving. More than 35,000 new cases were reported in the state on Sunday, and the weekly average of new cases per day in Los Angeles County exceeded 16,000 last week — roughly 12 times higher than it was averaging on Nov. 1.The crisis has stretched the health care system so thin that at one Los Angeles hospital, incoming patients were recently being instructed to wait in an outdoor tent because the lobby was being used to treat patients, and gurneys filled the gift shop.The lack of hospital capacity prompted public health officials in Los Angeles to reach out to some members of the production industry on Dec. 24 to ask them to “strongly consider pausing work for a few weeks during this catastrophic surge in Covid cases,” FilmLA said. (An official at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said only that it had “recommended a voluntary pause on production activities” during a phone call with industry officials, but did not specify a time frame.)A database maintained by the county health department lists locations tied to CBS, NBC, Netflix and Warner Bros. as among the more than 500 workplaces, restaurants and stores that have reported three or more positive coronavirus cases. Officials for the studios declined to comment on the record.With the standard holiday break now expanded until mid-January because of the surge in cases and concerns about hospital capacity in Los Angeles, several shows that had been slated to resume production this week will not return until next week at the earliest, officials said.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Listen to Rudolph: A New Year Is Both a Comfort and a Fiction

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s NotebookListen to Rudolph: A New Year Is Both a Comfort and a FictionA 1976 TV movie that imagined years as people is a helpful reminder that a new page on the calendar is an arbitrary creation.“Rudolph’s Shiny New Year” was a follow-up to the better-known Christmas special, but the second movie has lessons for our pandemic year.Credit…Rankin/Bass ProductionsJan. 4, 2021, 4:06 p.m. ETIf 2020 were a person, what would it look like? I imagine someone tired, ravaged, beaten down by illness and police brutality, and weary from trying to stay afloat in a sinking economy. We’ve personified 2020 in articles and memes and GIFs, speaking of it as though it were a living, breathing antagonist in our collective story. And this past New Year’s celebration was not so much about the birth of a new year as about the death of an old one that no one asked for.I was thinking of the poor pallor and limping gait of 2020 as I watched the 1976 Rankin-Bass stop-motion movie “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year” over the holidays. The film highlighted something that 2021 will surely come to prove: the ways we mark time are arbitrary, ultimately a fantasy in which our memory of a year often only accounts for the extremes of our experience: the best and worst things that happened to us. Time is unwieldy and untameable, so much larger than the ways we define it, and it continues whether or not we mark its passage.I grew up watching all the Rankin-Bass Christmas movies, with Heat Misers and Snow Misers and Burgermeister Meisterburgers, but “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year” always seemed the odd man (or, more accurately, odd reindeer) out. Unlike the others, which stuck to Christmas and its traditions, with stories of Santa and special holiday magic, “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year” focused on our celebration of passing time.The follow-up to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” set its protagonist on a new mission: After saving Christmas with his shiny schnoz-beacon, Rudolph must track down Happy, the baby new year, who has run away because people keep making fun of his Dumbo-esque ears. The aged Father Time tells Rudolph that if Happy isn’t found by midnight on New Year’s Eve, it will remain Dec. 31 forever.Rudolph encounters various silly side characters along the way, and the most delightful part of the movie for me was always his jaunt among the Archipelago of Last Years, with each year, personified based on prominent events and attitudes, getting its own island where time is locked. (I now wonder if the plot was swiped from the writer’s table at “Doctor Who.”)One Million B.C. is a cave man living among dinosaurs, and 1776 looks like Benjamin Franklin. We don’t get to see every island but learn that on 1492 island, people were too busy discovering things to help, and that 1965 was too noisy. Rudolph also mentions the island of 1893, the year of a major depression, but they have never heard of Happy.It’s a cute joke, one I missed as a kid but that caught my attention now: You could imagine 2020 there, passed over by Rudolph because its inhabitants have also never heard of Happy. But the premise reveals its own holes. For one, the personifications are America- and white-centric. America was born in 1776, but it was also the year of a deadly hurricane in Guadeloupe and a war against Cherokee tribes. And the island descriptions are all deliberately myopic: 1893 was the year of a depression but it was also the year of the Belgian workers’ strike and the Chicago World’s Fair. In 1965, when civil rights protests and Beatlemania were in full swing, it was definitely a year of noise but also silences: the death of Winston Churchill, the assassination of Malcolm X, deaths of civilians and soldiers in Vietnam. And then the quiet face of Mars, photographed for the first time by Mariner 4, hanging like a red ornament, suspended in the silence of space.But this is how we think of time: one adjective at a time, the best or the worst within the narrow confines of our own perspectives. Otherwise we’d go mad, accounting for every second of every day, every victory and trifle.“Rudolph’s Shiny New Year” is a reminder, however, that there’s comfort in that, to think that our worst years also contain someone else’s best, that our best years are tempered with the worst, and that there’s a larger narrative always happening beyond the turn of a calendar page.So we’ve kicked the old year out onto its island, and welcomed baby Happy 2021 hoping for the best. There is still a pandemic. There are still people sick and dying or unemployed. But on New Year’s Day I passed by children playing in the park and texted a friend about her exciting new job offer. I happily browsed new art to hang in my apartment, listened to music and watched a TikTok musical. Our celebration of the passage of 2020 is arbitrary, because there is more to come: the good and the bad and the everything in between.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      What’s on TV This Week: ‘Mr. Mayor’ and ‘Tiger’

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhat’s on TV This Week: ‘Mr. Mayor’ and ‘Tiger’Ted Danson plays a Los Angeles mayor in a new NBC sitcom. And HBO debuts the first part of a documentary about Tiger Woods.Ted Danson, left, and Bobby Moynihan in “Mr. Mayor.”Credit…Mitchell Haddad/NBCJan. 4, 2021, 1:00 a.m. ETBetween 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, Jan. 4-9. Details and times are subject to change.Monday30 COINS 9 p.m. on HBO. The Spanish filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia has blended the humorous and the horrific in movies like “Witching & Bitching” and “The Last Circus.” His latest project, the TV series “30 Coins,” is pure horror. It follows an exorcist (Eduard Fernández) who is sent by the church to serve as a priest in a remote Spanish village. He soon discovers that the town is a petri dish for the paranormal.TuesdayGORDON RAMSAY’S AMERICAN ROAD TRIP 8 p.m. on Fox. Gordon Ramsay, the acerbic celebrity-chef host of “Hell’s Kitchen,” doesn’t seem like the type to ask for directions. Luckily, the road trip he takes in this new special isn’t really about driving. “American Road Trip” finds Ramsay and two of his famous chef friends, Fred Sirieix and Gino D’Acampo, traveling North America by R.V. They guzzle gas and have gastronomic conversations over local delicacies.WednesdayRandy Jackson and Jane Krakowski in “Name That Tune.”Credit…Michael Becker/FoxNAME THAT TUNE 9 p.m. on Fox. “Name That Tune,” a competition show created in the early 1950s and rebooted in the ’70s and ’80s, challenged contestants to identify songs played by musicians onstage — sometimes using only a few notes. This reboot of the series, hosted by the actress Jane Krakowski (“30 Rock”) with a band led by Randy Jackson, is an opportunity to grill competitors on the decades of music that have been released since the show was last produced.DEATH ON THE NILE (1978) 8 p.m. on TCM. Kenneth Branagh’s new adaptation of the Agatha Christie mystery novel “Death on the Nile” was slated hit theaters this holiday season. It was delayed, so we’ll have to wait to find out how it compares to the 1978 adaptation, whose cast included Peter Ustinov, Bette Davis, Mia Farrow and Angela Lansbury. Branagh should hope his version compares favorably to the ’70s adaptation: In a review for The New York Times, Hilton Kramer called it “a big expensive, star‐studded bore.”ThursdayMR. MAYOR 8 p.m. on NBC. A year after “The Good Place” wrapped up, Ted Danson returns to the NBC sitcom realm in “Mr. Mayor,” a comedy series created by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. Danson plays Neil Bremer, a businessman who runs for mayor of Los Angeles. When he wins, he has to juggle the demands of his job (Holly Hunter and Bobby Moynihan play members of his staff) while navigating a sometimes strained relationship with his teenage daughter (Kyla Kenedy).FridayThe documentary filmmaker Ramona S. Diaz looks at attempts by President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines to undermine the press.Credit…PBS/FrontlineFRONTLINE: A THOUSAND CUTS 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). The documentary filmmaker Ramona S. Diaz (“Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey”) looks at attempts by President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines to devalue the press. To do that, Diaz follows efforts by the journalist Maria Ressa (who founded the news site Rappler) to cover the abuses of Duterte’s presidency — an undertaking that puts Ressa and her fellow journalists in danger. The result is “absorbing and multipronged,” and “a kaleidoscopic dissection of how information courses through the country,” Ben Kenigsberg wrote in his review for The New York Times. “It illustrates social media’s capacity to deceive and to entrench political power.”SaturdayTHE KING OF STATEN ISLAND (2020) 8 p.m. on HBO. The “Saturday Night Live” star Pete Davidson filters his own back story through Judd Apatow’s lens in this comedy-drama. Davidson plays Scott, a couch-bound 24-year-old who lives with his mother, Margie (Marisa Tomei), on Staten Island. Scott’s father, a firefighter, has been dead for over a decade and a half — a loss that Scott is still grappling with. (Davidson’s own father, who was a firefighter, died responding to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.) Scott is forced to reckon with his father’s death and his own mental health after Margie takes up with a new boyfriend (played by Bill Burr).SundayTiger Woods in 2020. A two-part documentary about him, “Tiger,” debuts on HBO on Jan. 10.Credit…Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated PressTIGER 9 p.m. on HBO. Tiger Woods’s career is famously full of peaks and valleys, so it makes sense that this HBO documentary about him runs three hours. Interviewees include Woods’s former caddie Steve Williams and other golf figures like the English player Nick Faldo. The first part debuts Sunday night; the second airs Jan. 17. The Times critic Mike Hale predicted that the documentary will be compared to ESPN’s 2020 hit “The Last Dance,” about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, but that “Woods’s story is more tragic and more complicated.”THE CIRCUS 8 p.m. on Showtime. When this political documentary series debuted in 2016, it offered a behind-the-scenes look at presidential campaigns. James Poniewozik, in a review for The Times, likened it to a reality show: The series, he wrote, is “a document and an example of the superficiality of today’s elections.” Its fifth season, which covered the 2020 election cycle, ended in November; the sixth season debuts Sunday, in the wake of the Georgia Senate runoffs.ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). If you’re looking for an escape, skip “The Circus” and instead spend your Sunday evening with actual animals — including prim dogs and horses — in this new TV adaptation of the James Herriot book “If Only They Could Talk.” The show follows a trio of veterinarians working in rural England in the 1930s.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Cobra Kai’: Strike First. Strike Hard. Come Back for More.

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Cobra Kai’: Strike First. Strike Hard. Come Back for More.In a group interview, Ralph Macchio, William Zabka and Elisabeth Shue discuss their “Karate Kid” bond and the new, reunion-heavy season of the sequel series, “Cobra Kai.”Daniel (Ralph Macchio, left) and Johnny (William Zabka) squared off in the original “Karate Kid” movie. In “Cobra Kai,” they face new adversaries, one of which is time.Credit…Tina Rowden/NetflixJan. 3, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETThis interview includes spoilers for the new season of “Cobra Kai.”In that first “Karate Kid” movie, the elbow strikes and flying kicks never really pummeled the actors or stuntmen on the receiving end, not even the controversial crane kick that won Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso the 1984 All-Valley Karate championship. The only blow that actually connected? The right hook that Elisabeth Shue’s high school junior, Ali Mills, throws during the country club scene.“Right on the jaw,” William Zabka, who took the shot, said as Shue laughed in a neighboring Zoom window “She packs a real punch.”So did the movie. A box office smash and a slumber party totem for teens and tweens of the 1980s and beyond, it birthed two immediate sequels, an animated series, a partial reboot starring Hilary Swank and a head-scratcher 2010 remake that shifted the action to China. That crane kick? It had legs.In 2018, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg (the Harold & Kumar movies) and Josh Heald (“Hot Tub Time Machine”), brought the franchise back to the mat with “Cobra Kai.”A stealth hit for YouTube’s premium service, “Cobra Kai” visited Zabka’s one-time bully Johnny and Macchio’s Daniel in middle age, with Johnny a down-and-out-in-Reseda handyman and Daniel a successful car dealer. Instead of winking pastiche, the series presented surprisingly rich characters and themes — bullying, toxic masculinity, how past choices reverberate — plus some REO Speedwagon needle drops. After Netflix made the first two seasons available in August, roughly 50 million households clicked play on Season 1 in the first four weeks, Netflix reported.For Season 3, Elizabeth Shue reprised her role as Ali, who in the original film stood at the center of Daniel and Johnny’s conflict. Credit…CURTIS BONDS BAKER/NETFLIX Each season revives more and more franchise characters, like the evil sensei John Kreese (Martin Kove) and Johnny’s Cobra Kai mat pack. Ali has appeared occasionally in conversation. “Man, that girl was something,” Johnny says mistily in Season 1. The Season 2 cliffhanger? Ali’s Facebook friend request.Finally, in the latter episodes of Season 3, which premiered Friday on Netflix, Shue’s Ali returns in person, in setups that gesture toward the Golf N’ Stuff and country club scenes from the film.On a recent weekday, Macchio, Shue and Zabka met up again, this time via Zoom, to discuss their shared legacy and who really won that long-ago championship. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Let’s settle this: The crane kick in the 1984 tournament. Was it legal?WILLIAM ZABKA Technically, it was not legal. Am I right, Ralph? You’re not supposed to kick somebody in the head with no pads on in a real tournament.RALPH MACCHIO I would venture to not disagree with that. Although, if you play back the fight. I took one right here [gestures to the side of face] two points back. That was allowed.ZABKA I was given a warning!MACCHIO I didn’t get a warning. It was over.SHUE I heard it [the crane kick] was a made-up move. That it isn’t actually a karate move.ZABKA It is now. Lyoto Machida, he knocked somebody out with that. He’s a karate guy in the U.F.C.MACCHIO YouTube that and you’ll see. Guy walks right into it. But no one took as good of a hit as Mr. Zabka. Listen, if he didn’t take the hit brilliantly, the kick doesn’t work. So we both won.Elisabeth, did they ever let you do any karate?SHUE I did get to play a little bit of soccer. I got to do my back handspring. I tried to put a back handspring into almost every movie I was in in the ’80s. If you look at “Cocktail,” there’s one there, too. I actually did a back handspring and hit Tom [Cruise] in the face. Funny story. Chipped his tooth.To be honest, back then I did feel like, “I want to be doing karate.” It was hard to not be in the middle of that story line. But that would have been absurd.Or not.SHUE I got those punches in. That’s all that matters. As long as I punch a few people in the face and I can do a back handspring, I’m good.That first movie really holds up while so many ’80s teen movies don’t. Why?MACCHIO There’s so much pop culture that surrounds “The Karate Kid”: “Sweep the leg” or catching flies with chopsticks or “Get him a body bag.” That’s all fun and great and adds to the legacy, but the film worked on a human level. Those elements of mentorship, bullying, single parenting — these are all elements that stand the test of time.ZABKA You can watch the movie again from the beginning, knowing exactly how it’s going end. You’ve seen this crane kick a million times, and you’ll still be sucked into the moment. That’s [the director] John Avildsen. And Robert Kamen, who wrote it. We were lucky enough to get to play those characters. The rest is magic.Macchio with Mary Mouser, who plays Daniel’s daughter. Revisiting these characters, he said, has been an emotional experience for him, Shue and Zabka: “This thing has lived with the three of us.”Credit…Bob Mahoney/NetflixThe movie became a huge hit. How much did that determine the arcs of your careers?MACCHIO It affected me in the most profound and positive way, and now I’m reaping the rewards and benefits and privileges of that role. But our town is so tunnel vision-y. By the time “My Cousin Vinny” came around, it was a big challenge. I could not get in the room. And then I did, and I got that part on the drive home. But that’s just part of it, man. I chose to always be creative and during those lean years in the ’90s, to be there for my kids. So it kind of worked out perfectly.ZABKA I was the guy that took that crane kick. You get typecast. You know, “You served up taking the fall, do it in this one and be a bigger jerk.” I had a lot of those come my way. Then I got into filmmaking and made a short film. So it’s all a blessing, and here we are in “Cobra Kai” and it’s all come full circle. I get to play the character that launched all this and turn him inside out and rip him apart and dissect him and put his heart out for the world, and that’s just a thrill.SHUE I had a definite up-and-down journey, just like these guys, coming to terms with how I was birthed into the business as a “girlfriend.” One of the reasons I wasn’t in “Karate Kid II” is I was actually in school. Going back to school was my way of saying, “I’m not going to be defined by this business.” All three of us had this amazingly successful movie and then had to really claim our lives and push ourselves to find the parts that were more complicated, that would challenge us, so we wouldn’t be defined by this one film. I’m really proud of that.So why was this the project that brought you all back?ZABKA I’d worked with Josh Heald on “Hot Tub Time Machine.” And I knew Jon and Hayden. They dropped this bomb on me in a Mexican restaurant. We barely got through a basket of chips when they grabbed Johnny Lawrence out of me and laid everything on the table. I said: “I’m already carrying the torch of the bully for 30 years. Is this going to just expand that? Am I going to end up with the proverbial crane kick at the end of this whole thing? And they’re going to really hate me? Because I don’t want to do that. I want something that’s going to be human.”They said no. I just trusted them. I said: “I’m in. Go get Ralph. Let’s see what happens.”MACCHIO I had said no more than a handful of times to very credible writers and filmmakers and studio people. It always seemed smarter to me to let the legacy stand. These guys came in with a very well-crafted pitch. It sounded smart and fresh. These guys executed brilliant storytelling. And William Zabka, without him delivering on that level, I don’t think the show works.ZABKA Thank you for that, Ralph.MACCHIO Now you owe me one.SHUE The thing that really changed my mind and made me excited about the possibility of being on it was the scene in the bar when you were talking about me and you’re [both] still sort of obsessed with me. It just made me laugh out loud.Then the guys were amazing in terms of creating a way for her to enter the world that would be would be respectful of her growing into a woman, a complicated woman, who didn’t have a perfect life, who was dealing with her own issues.How did it feel to be back together at Golf ‘N’ Stuff and in a replica of that same country club?SHUE I loved it. Ralph and I were talking about how emotional it was to reconnect to this innocent place in your life, and to realize the impact that these actors and this world has had on your life.MACCHIO There’s been that through the entire series for me. With Billy, standing in our first scene together. In the scenes with Mary [Mouser], who plays my daughter, talking about Mr. Miyagi [Daniel’s fatherly sensei in the films, played by Pat Morita in an Oscar-nominated performance]. This thing has lived with the three of us. We’re all connected to this universe.Elisabeth, were you tempted to punch Billy, just for old times?SHUE I punched you in the shoulder a few times.ZABKA When she hands me the stuffed animal at Golf ‘N’ Stuff, she didn’t hand it to me. She thumped it into my chest. She’s so competitive.SHUE I beat you at air hockey.So how many seasons before Ali gets a fight scene?SHUE It would be hilarious. Ali comes back Season 9 to start her own dojo.MACCHIO We’ll be ready for it.ZABKA She had two karate boyfriends in high school. She had to have learned a few things.What is her dojo named?SHUE Ali’s Going to Kick Your Ass.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Elizabeth Is Missing’ Review: Glenda Jackson’s Return to TV

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Elizabeth Is Missing’ Review: Glenda Jackson’s Return to TVThe renowned actress stars as a woman fending off dementia while she searches for a lost friend.Glenda Jackson in “Elizabeth Is Missing.”Credit…Mark Mainz/STV Productions/PBSJan. 1, 2021, 1:56 p.m. ETThe BBC television movie “Elizabeth Is Missing” — a stand-alone episode of “Masterpiece” on PBS this Sunday — contains Glenda Jackson’s first screen performance since 1992. That certainly merits attention — Jackson, now 84, is one of the most technically accomplished and ferociously intelligent actresses of our time. Did it merit the rapturous British reviews on its release in 2019 and perhaps inevitable awards, including a BAFTA and an international Emmy, that she received for it? Not really, but it isn’t Jackson’s fault.You can see the appeal to Jackson of “Elizabeth Is Missing,” which was adapted by the actress and writer Andrea Gibb from a mystery novel by Emma Healey. The central character, Maud, who is moving from forgetfulness into dementia, is onscreen virtually the entire time, whether in the present or as her teenage self (played by Liv Hill) in a parallel story line set 70 years ago. The progress of the film largely takes place through Jackson’s twofold embodiment of Maud’s decline and of her stubborn, often angry battle to delay and deny it.The story puts Maud in a situation full of dramatic promise: her best friend, Elizabeth, has suddenly disappeared, and Maud is determined to find her despite the inconvenient fact that she can’t convince anyone that Elizabeth is actually gone. Scrawling notes to herself about Elizabeth’s glasses and some suspiciously broken vases, Maud carries on her investigation in fits and starts, picking it up again whenever she remembers that Elizabeth is missing.It’s a great setup for a straightforward mystery, but “Elizabeth Is Missing” is more complicated than that, and while you can’t hold that ambition against it, you might wish that you were watching something simpler. Maud’s search for Elizabeth is woven together with the disappearance of Maud’s married older sister in 1950. Events in the present and past continually mix in Maud’s mind, her memories triggered by objects or phrases in ways that are artful and a little too self-conscious.The mystery-novel structure of the story turns out to be both a feint and a reality, something that becomes predictable fairly early on and is disappointing in the final result. We’re supposed to be getting a deeper satisfaction from the detailed depiction of Maud and her affliction, and the neatly arranged thematic resonance between the two story lines, revolving around what it really means to be missing.But despite the efforts of the talented director Aisling Walsh (“Maudie”), who gives the film a welcome restraint and clarity, “Elizabeth Is Missing” doesn’t hit the mark — the screenplay is too fussy and tricky, and the resolution to the twin mysteries, with its mixed notes of heroism and resignation, isn’t convincing. (Walsh’s final image, a long shot of Maud crossing a street alone in mourning clothes, has a power lacking in the rest of the film.)But as you could expect, it contains a mostly faultless performance by Jackson, one that’s certainly worth 87 minutes of your viewing time. (It might also remind you that despite Jackson’s stature, and some high points like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “The Return of the Soldier,” her screen résumé isn’t all that distinguished.)She doesn’t play for our sympathy — she leans into the character’s frustration and irascibility, making it clear how difficult she is to deal with. And she communicates Maud’s flickering moods and perceptions precisely and indelibly, in the way she briskly taps a notecard when Maud makes a connection or in a quick, shattering moment when she silently screams with frustration at a restaurant, conscious of not making (too much of) a scene. Maud may not come fully alive in the script, but there’s nothing missing in Jackson’s portrayal.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, HBO Max, Hulu and More in January

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, HBO Max, Hulu and More in JanuaryEvery month, subscription streaming services add a new batch of titles to their libraries. Here are our picks for January.Dec. 31, 2020, 6:21 p.m. ETNote: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our twice-weekly Watching newsletter here.Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany in “WandaVision.”Credit…Marvel Studios/DisneyNew to Disney+‘WandaVision’Starts streaming: Jan. 15Possibly the most anticipated Disney+ show since “The Mandalorian,” the superhero sitcom “WandaVision” represents the start of a new wave of Marvel Comics TV series and promises to be more eclectic and creative than the grim and gritty action dramas on other networks. In “WandaVision,” two of the odder members of the Avengers — the mutant matter-manipulating Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and the superpowered android Vision (Paul Bettany) — go undercover in suburbia, where they try to fit in by making their lives more like what they’ve seen on television. Disney has mostly been keeping the details of this long-in-production show a secret, but the advertising so far has made it look downright surreal — and absolutely unmissable.Also arriving:Jan. 8“Marvel Studios: Legends”Jan. 22“Pixar Popcorn”Leslie Odom Jr. as Sam Cooke in “One Night in Miami.”Credit…Patti Perret/Amazon StudiosNew to Amazon‘One Night in Miami’Starts streaming: Jan. 15Based on a Kemp Powers play, the historical drama “One Night in Miami” imagines what might have happened during a 1964 meeting at a Miami hotel between Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree), Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) and Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge). Not long after these four gathered, Ali changed his name from Cassius Clay and declared himself to be a Muslim, Malcolm left the Nation of Islam, Cooke recorded music informed by the civil rights movement, and Brown started winding down his N.F.L. career to devote himself more to activism and acting. Directed by Regina King, the movie frames an evening of celebration and reflection as one long, energizing bull session between four very different men, arguing and joking, away from the scrutiny of a public judging their choices.‘Flack’ Season 1Starts streaming: Jan. 22Anna Paquin gets her juiciest role since “True Blood” in “Flack,” a sort of lower-stakes version of “Scandal,” following public relations “fixers” who do all they can to keep their desperate celebrity clients out of the tabloids. In nearly every episode, someone needs the help of Paquin’s character, Robyn, or her co-workers after being caught in the wrong bed or found at the scene of a crime. A lot of the entertainment value comes from how these shrewd and nurturing professionals — mostly women — work miracles to save some entitled folks who barely deserve their help. There’s some pathos, too, as Robyn manages her messy personal life, but “Flack” is generally more enjoyably soapy than profound.Also arriving:Jan. 8“Herself”Jan. 15“Tandav”Jan. 18“Alone”Jan. 22“Jessy and Nessy”Hailee Steinfeld, center, as the lead in “Dickinson.”Credit…Apple TV+New to Apple TV+‘Dickinson’ Season 2Starts streaming: Jan. 8The loopy historical dramedy “Dickinson” was part of Apple TV+’s first wave of television shows; and it remains one of the service’s most acclaimed. The second season has all the charms of the first, beginning with Hailee Steinfeld’s winning performance as the poet Emily Dickinson, portrayed as a headstrong young woman who bucks her family’s ideas of respectable femininity. The clever hook of “Dickinson” is that while it is set in the distant American past, the characters behave like they are in a modern suburban TV household — bickering wryly when they’re all together and then later brooding quietly while melancholy pop music plays. Season 2 opens with an admission that the historical record is vague on this phase of the writer’s life (a period not long after her brother married the woman Dickinson loved), but that doesn’t stop the show’s creators from using her poems as a window into her daily romantic despair.‘Palmer’Starts streaming: Jan. 29Justin Timberlake mutes his big pop star personality considerably for the small-scaled drama “Palmer,” a movie about a chastened ex-con trying to get his life back on track in his small Southern hometown. Alisha Wainwright plays a local teacher who feels drawn to Palmer after she sees how he takes care of a neglected neighbor boy who is teased at school because he loves toys and clothes designed for girls. The “misfits are people, too” message is uplifting, though the film’s real selling point is its cast, which also includes the phenomenal Juno Temple as a well-meaning mother who struggles with impulse control.Also arriving:Jan. 15“Servant” Season 2Jan. 22“Losing Alice”John Lurie in “Painting With John.”Credit…HBO MaxNew to HBO Max‘Tiger’Starts streaming: Jan. 10The 2020 docu-series “The Last Dance” set a high bar for in-depth, behind-the-scenes sports stories, filled with glory and scandal. HBO’s two-part “Tiger” isn’t as dazzling, but it’s at least playing in the same league. Though it is missing a central interview with the golfer Tiger Woods himself, this mini-series does include input from many of his friends and colleagues, who speak about the private Woods — good and bad — that few golf fans have ever gotten to see. “Tiger” features remarkable footage from throughout Woods’s career (including his amateur years, which were unusually well-documented thanks to his prescient parents). But in between the scenes of a once-in-a-generation athlete dominating his sport, this documentary also covers the immense pressure that was placed on him. And it is frank about what happened when the man began to crack.‘Painting With John’Starts streaming: Jan. 22In the early 1990s, the avant-garde musician John Lurie created and hosted the lovably bizarre series “Fishing With John,” a low-key nature and interview show that frequently took surreal turns. Lurie’s new project, “Painting With John,” plays things just a little bit straighter. Like an oddball version of Bob Ross, Lurie starts each episode teaching viewers about art but ends up talking more about life, spinning personal anecdotes and sharing his insights and beliefs. He does paint, too; and the colorful close-ups of Lurie’s canvasses combined with the hushed growl of his voice makes this an unusually relaxing show.Also arriving:Jan. 14“Search Party” Season 4Jan. 21“Gomorrah” Season 3Jan. 24“Euphoria” Special, Part 2Jan. 29“The Little Things”New to Hulu‘Jann’ Seasons 1 & 2Starts streaming: Jan. 29Fans of lighthearted and character-driven Canadian sitcoms like “Schitt’s Creek” should enjoy “Jann,” a similarly sweet and dryly satirical comedy about a former jet-setter adjusting to a career downturn. The singer-songwriter Jann Arden plays a cartoony version of herself: a musician who had a few chart hits in the 1990s but has since dealt with health problems, relationship woes, family crises and a changing pop music market. In the show’s two seasons so far — both already hugely popular in Canada — the amiable Arden has been willing to look silly as she spoofs the foibles of a showbiz exile. But she and her fellow “Jann” creators Leah Gauthier and Jennica Harper have also balanced the character’s persistent state of embarrassment with strong and stirring elements of underdog melodrama.Also arriving:Jan. 1“Like a Boss”“Save Yourselves!”Jan. 13“Everyone Is Doing Great” Season 1Jan. 15“Endlings” Season 2“The Ultimate Playlist of Noise”Jan. 22“Derek DelGaudio’s In & of Itself”“The Sister”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      How the Networks Will Fill Airtime on a Quiet New Year’s Eve

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyHow the Networks Will Fill Airtime on a Quiet New Year’s EveIn a typical year, shots of raucous parties from around the world dominate news programming. This year, the networks had to get more creative.Times Square will be emptier than usual for New Year’s Eve this year, but TV networks are doing their best to fill the gaps with extra live performances and creative thinking.Credit…Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesDec. 30, 2020[Follow our New Year’s Eve live coverageWhat becomes of Times Square when you take away hundreds of thousands of cheering, shivering New Year’s Eve revelers?It may no longer be the “biggest, most exciting New Year’s Eve party on Earth.” But it may still be the night’s biggest TV production set.For this year’s pandemic New Year’s Eve, many television traditions will be scrapped, including the scenes of raucous celebrations across the world and impromptu interviews with exuberant party goers at bars and clubs, eager to say hello to their mothers and grandmothers back home.Instead, networks are doubling down on the segments that they can safely pull off. They’ve increased the number of performers and interview guests, decreased the number of crew members and brainstormed creative — and socially distant — locations to send their reporters to. (Instead of reporting from a crowd of partyers, for example, one CNN correspondent will report from a crowd of puppies, which are not known to spread the coronavirus.)So while the type of people who enjoy cramming themselves into crowds of strangers to watch the ball drop may be disappointed this year, the type that prefers to curl up and celebrate from their sofas will find their tradition largely intact.“In some respects it’s going to feel very similar to previous years,” said Meredith McGinn, an executive producer of NBC’s New Year’s Eve program, which is hosted by Carson Daly. “You will see the same confetti fly at midnight; you will see the ball drop.”But, like most things in 2020, there were some necessary adjustments.“Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” on ABC will send Ryan Seacrest roaming around a much emptier Times Square with a camera crew in tow — wearing a mask except when standing in designated areas. And CNN’s hosts, Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, will reunite in Times Square for an evening of interviews and cheeky ad-libbing. (The hosts are close friends who have been in each other’s social “bubbles” during the pandemic.)This year, the Times Square camera crews and riggings are confined to a space between 45th and 47th Streets. It usually stretches from 41st to 59th.Credit…Carlo Allegri/ReutersIn a typical year, Cooper and Cohen invite interview guests up to their riser overlooking the crowds; this year, the network will superimpose images of the guests’ full bodies beside the hosts in a technique that they will jokingly call “teleportation.” On NBC, rather than cutting to raging parties, the network will broadcast small family gatherings from inside their homes. Even the Times Square production set is smaller: While it typically stretches from 41st Street to 59th Street; this year it is limited to a space between 45th Street and 47th Street.“We had to reinvent Times Square,” said Jeff Straus, the president of Countdown Entertainment, which co-produces the event with Times Square Alliance. He described the set up as a theater in the round, with two stages at the center. Three huge screens will provide close-ups of what’s happening onstage for the small number of guests.Emergency medical workers, frontline workers and essential workers were invited to bring their families to sit in specially designated areas in Times Square and watch the array of performances. In total, somewhere between 100 and 160 guests are expected to be present for the 11 scheduled musical acts, including a seven-minute show by Jennifer Lopez leading up to the final countdown. Those guests will be the subjects of the on-camera interviews, rather than the partyers among dense crowds of people, some of whom wait in Times Square for a dozen or more hours to ensure good spots.To pull off the broadcast, networks must follow state guidelines on pandemic television production, as well as protocols set by the various unions representing the crews and performers. They’ve devised plans for testing production staffers for Covid-19 before New Year’s Eve and for feeding production staffers without letting them get too close to one another. (NBC rented additional space in Times Square to make sure crew members could eat and maintain proper distance.)On Thursday, network employees will work from separate locations when possible. The director of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” Glenn Weiss, is overseeing the broadcast from his office on 46th Street instead of in the “Good Morning America” studio at Broadway and 44th Street. And NBC cameras are stationed on the third floor of the Renaissance New York Times Square Hotel, where the network had to remove some of the hotel’s windows so that bird’s-eye-views of the event would not be hindered by glare.All of the acts at Times Square will be live, including performances by Lopez, Gloria Gaynor, Billy Porter, Cyndi Lauper and Pitbull. Many other performances will occur on stages outside of New York — including those by Brandy, Megan Thee Stallion and Miley Cyrus, all from Los Angeles, for ABC.The networks have lined up more pretaped material than usual, however. (Most have not said which of the performances were filmed in advance.)Highlights of PBS’s prerecorded New Year’s Eve programming include an opening performance of “Lady Marmalade” by Patti LaBelle.Credit…Dan Chung/Mount Vernon Ladies’ AssociationOn PBS, a New Year’s Eve program, called “United in Song,” was filmed in November at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and in September at George Washington’s Virginia estate in Mount Vernon, where about 120 audience members watched from a distance and masked violinists were separated from unmasked brass players with plexiglass. NBC is showing a new Blake Shelton music video. Spectrum News NY1 will roll a highlight reel of its reporter Dean Meminger’s flashy New Year’s Eve suits over the years.And networks are getting creative in other ways to fill the holes formerly filled by crowd shots and partyers. CNN will have one correspondent getting a tattoo, another skiing down an Oregon slope wearing a GoPro and an appearance from Carole Baskin of “Tiger King” fame.With the pandemic driving people away from bars and restaurants and toward their living rooms, executives say it’s possible that there will be more viewers than ever before. ABC, which tends to have the highest viewership on the holiday, peaked last year at about 21 million viewers, according to news reports.“I can never predict what the Nielsen gods will bring,” said Mark Bracco, an executive producer on ABC’s program, “but we’re hopeful that most Americans will be home on their couches.”In a year in which more than 338,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus, viewers may notice a tonal shift compared with the goofy — and sometimes tipsy — coverage of years past. The Champagne popping and 2021 eyeglasses will be interspersed with appreciations of health care workers and emergency medical workers, as well as reflections on the lives lost and the economic hardship.On ABC, Seacrest will interview President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his wife, Jill Biden, a rare political interview of someone other than the New York City mayor.And on PBS, an opening performance of “Lady Marmalade” by Patti LaBelle in a gleaming white suit opens the hour-and-a-half program that includes more serious notes, including a monologue from the actress Audra McDonald about trailblazing women throughout history and from the playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith about the history of the slave cemetery at Mount Vernon as she walks through those grounds. On CNN, John Mayer is slated to perform a tribute to lives lost this year out of Los Angeles.“We’re all going to be celebrating the end of this horrific year,” said Eric Hall, the executive producer of CNN’s program, “and we’re also going to be celebrating the beginning of what looks to be a hopeful year.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More