Television

Subterms

    More stories

    • 75 Shares149 Views

      in Television

      ‘Saturday Night Live’ Presents Trump Bibles

      by

      Ramy Youssef hosted this weekend’s episode, which also spoofed immigrant fathers and Flaco the owl.Former president Donald Trump’s recent foray into the business of selling his own Bibles provided plenty of comic fodder for “Saturday Night Live” on Easter weekend, including an opening sketch that, for a moment, seemed like a sincere retelling of the resurrection of Jesus.This weekend’s broadcast, hosted by Ramy Youssef and featuring the musical guest Travis Scott, began with a voice-over recounting that the resurrection was witnessed by three women “who had come to anoint the body of Jesus and tend to his tomb.”Following an aside from one of the women played by Sarah Sherman (who wryly observed, “When we’re done grieving, maybe we should come up with a girl’s name other than Mary”), the stone of the tomb was rolled away to reveal a glowing light.“Is it Jesus?” asked another woman, played by Heidi Gardner.“Basically, yes,” answered James Austin Johnson, in his recurring role as Trump. “Happy Easter, everybody,” he declared as he entered. “As it was stated in the Bible: ‘Guess who’s back, back again. Shady’s back.’”Johnson noted that it was “the time of year when I compare myself to Jesus Christ,” which is “just a thing I do now, and people seem to be OK with it.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares119 Views

      in Television

      Chance Perdomo, Star of ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,’ Dies at 27

      by

      Mr. Perdomo, who died in a motorcycle accident on Friday, played the pansexual warlock Ambrose Spellman in the Netflix series.Chance Perdomo, the British actor known for his roles in the series “Gen V” and “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” died on Friday. He was 27.Mr. Perdomo died in a motorcycle accident, Larissa Saenz, a representative for him, confirmed in a statement on Saturday. The statement said that the “authorities have advised that no other individuals were involved.” It was not immediately clear where the accident happened.Mr. Perdomo played the pansexual warlock Ambrose Spellman in the Netflix series “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” and Andre Anderson, a superhuman with magnetic manipulation abilities, in “The Boys” spinoff series “Gen V.”He was born on Oct. 20, 1996, according to his representative, in Los Angeles and raised in Southampton, England. Details on survivors were not immediately available.Mr. Perdomo had described himself as “a Black child raised by a Latino mother in a white society with two nationalities.”He landed a small part on an episode of “Hetty Feather,” a British children’s drama set in the Victorian era, after graduating from Peter Symonds College in Winchester, where one of his majors was theater.He told The New York Times in 2020 that although the role was “one or two lines,” it was enough “to take that leap of faith” and pursue acting full time.Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Television said in a statement posted to a “Gen V” social media account that they were “devastated” by the news of Mr. Perdomo’s death.The account also shared a statement from the producers of “Gen V” in which they said they “can’t quite wrap our heads around this.”“Even writing about him in the past tense doesn’t make sense,” the statement added.Variety reported that production on the second season of “Gen V” had been “delayed indefinitely” after the news of Mr. Perdomo’s death.In Britain, Mr. Perdomo was known for starring in “Killed by My Debt,” a television movie based on the true story of a young courier who dies by suicide after two traffic tickets grow into a crushing debt.In an interview posted on social media, he recalled a conversation he had with his mother when he was about 2 years old. He told her he had two things he aspired to.“She said, ‘What do you want to be?’” he said. “I said I want to be the first Black president of the United States, and I want to be on ‘Barney.’”Mr. Perdomo went on to describe the differences between his roles on “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” and “Killed by My Debt.” Of his work, he said: “It’s been quite a year. Quite a couple of years.”“Visual mediums are great tools to be able to get messages and get thoughts across,” he added.He said that connecting with someone emotionally could help lead a person to think differently and “that can change perspectives and hopefully lead to more of a permanent change.” More

    • 150 Shares119 Views

      in Television

      J.B. Smoove of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Thinks You Should Get Out More

      by

      Although he plays a sort of permanent houseguest on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “I tell young people all the time to go places,” he says.J.B. Smoove has been here before.“This is almost like the old ‘S.N.L.’ story,” he said, referring to when he lost his writing job on “Saturday Night Live” in 2006. “Something has to go away for something to come in.”This time, what’s ending is “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” on which he plays Leon Black, Larry David’s foulmouthed houseguest who never left.What’s coming in is Smoove Season.“Larry might be ready to hang them up,” he said. “I’m ready to take them off. This is my time to introduce all things that I love” — among them, producing and his new lines of watches and hat boxes. “I think there’s something really interesting about building something that you’re always building. It is never finished.”In fact, Smoove still isn’t certain that this 12th and final season of “Curb” is actually its last.“I never know what the temperature is because as the world keeps changing, Larry keeps thinking of ways to get us through it and explain it to us in his way,” Smoove said on a video call before talking about sharp suits, cigar cars and his beloved R.V. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1Close DancingMy wife, Shah, calls me Twinkle Toes. I started in a dance crew when I was younger. And man, I’ve been dancing my whole life. My wife and I, any event we go to, we are literally the life of the party. We like dirty dancing. We like to do our little moves. And we dance even better when we know people are watching us.2Suits, Shoes, ShadesThat is the J.B. look right there. I would wear a suit every day if I could. It forces your posture. You have to purposefully have your suit to the point where you have to breathe in and then you button your top button and you don’t exhale for the rest of the night. If that belly is sticking out, you are not doing that suit justice.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 Shares189 Views

      in Movies

      Louis Gossett Jr., 87, Dies; ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’ and ‘Roots’ Actor

      by

      His portrayal of a drill instructor earned him the Oscar for best supporting actor. He was the first Black performer to win in that category.Louis Gossett Jr., who took home an Academy Award for “An Officer and a Gentleman” and an Emmy for “Roots,” both times playing a mature man who guides a younger one taking on a new role — but in drastically different circumstances — died early Friday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 87.Mr. Gossett’s first cousin Neal L. Gossett confirmed the death. He did not specify a cause.Mr. Gossett with Susan Sarandon and Christopher Reeve after winning the Oscar for “An Officer and a Gentleman” in 1983.Associated PressMr. Gossett was 46 when he played Emil Foley, the Marine drill instructor from hell who ultimately shapes the humanity of an emotionally damaged young Naval aviation recruit (Richard Gere) in “An Officer and a Gentleman” (1982). Reviewing the movie in The New York Times, Vincent Canby described Sergeant Foley as a cruel taskmaster “recycled as a man of recognizable cunning, dedication and humor” revealed in “the kind of performance that wins awards.”Paramount, via Everett CollectionMr. Gossett told The Times that he had recognized the role’s worth immediately. “The words just tasted good,” he recalled.When he accepted the Oscar for best supporting actor in 1983, he was the first Black performer to win in that category — and only the third (after Hattie McDaniel and Sidney Poitier) to win an Academy Award for acting.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 Shares199 Views

      in Television

      ‘Renegade Nell’ Review: When the Highwayman Is a Superwoman

      by

      In a new series for Disney+, the creator of “Happy Valley” and “Last Tango in Halifax” imagines a sometimes-superpowered 18th-century justice warrior.The British television writer Sally Wainwright may not be a household name in the United States, but for more than a decade she has been turning out television shows whose variety and consistently high quality few writer-producers can match.“Scott & Bailey,” which premiered in 2011, was a smart, tart buddy-detective procedural. The blended-families drama “Last Tango in Halifax” (2012) was finely tooled, irresistible hokum, reflecting the lessons Wainwright learned during her tenure on the venerable soap opera “Coronation Street.” She raised her game with “Happy Valley” (2014), a terrific series about the intertwined work and home lives of a doggedly heroic policewoman. And she segued into costume drama with “Gentleman Jack” (2019), a fact-based Victorian saga of lesbian romance and financial maneuvering that was, like the others, well made, well acted and highly engaging.The shows have a couple of through lines. They all take place in or near Wainwright’s home ground of Yorkshire, in northern England. And they all focus on tough, take-charge women — often women whose commitment to what they know or think is right can make them a little hard to live with.Wainwright’s latest show, “Renegade Nell,” whose eight episodes premiered Friday on Disney+, takes her down some new paths. The action moves south, toward London (it was filmed in Oxfordshire), and further back in time, to the early 1700s. And in a significant departure, Wainwright dabbles in the supernatural: Her heroine, the commoner Nell Jackson, can summon otherworldly strength and agility to battle the black magic wielded by her higher-born foes.Nell, played by Louisa Harland of “Derry Girls,” is another Wainwright heroine who must learn how to harness her strength and high spirits, and not do collateral damage to her family and friends. (She gets called “unnatural,” an epithet also applied to the protagonist of “Gentleman Jack” when she acts in ways women are not supposed to.) Nell’s challenge is greater, though, because the strength is so unexpected. Stumbling upon a stagecoach robbery, she is about to be shot when a tiny light appears and gives her ruffian-bashing, bullet-dodging capabilities.The light turns out to be a winged humanoid named Billy, played by Nick Mohammed of “Ted Lasso,” who returns to bail out Nell whenever she is in danger (though not always as promptly as she would like). And she is in danger a lot: Her new powers, combined with some complicated and tragic circumstances, turn her into a fugitive suspected of multiple murders and eventually put her in the unlikely position of saving the British crown from a Jacobite invasion. (Thematically, it’s helpful for Wainwright that the actual monarch at the time, who faced an actual coup attempt, was a woman, Queen Anne, played in the show with an arch sang-froid by Jodhi May.)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

    • 175 Shares139 Views

      in Movies

      Louis Gossett Jr. Streaming Guide: ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’ to ‘The Color Purple’

      by

      His range was wide, as evidenced by performances in projects as different as “Roots,” “An Officer and a Gentleman” and “Diggstown.”When most people think of the venerable character actor Louis Gossett Jr., who died Friday at 87, they understandably summon up his Oscar-winning turn in the 1982 drama “An Officer and a Gentleman.” But he accumulated over 200 credits over a screen, stage and television career that spanned more than 60 years, and brought a skill set that included not only drama but also comedy, science fiction, action and horror. Here are a few highlights from his illustrious career and where to stream them.1977‘Roots’Rent or buy it on most major platforms.Gossett had already established himself as an actor of note onstage, and in television guest shots and small but memorable appearances on film (“The Landlord,” “Skin Game”) when he was cast in the ABC mini-series adaptation of Alex Haley’s best seller. He plays the key role of Fiddler, an older enslaved man who becomes a mentor to the central character, Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton). Fiddler allows Gossett to display several of the gifts that would distinguish him throughout his career: an inherent dignity, a no-nonsense toughness and a (seemingly contradictory) warmth and humanity. The mini-series was a cultural sensation, breaking records for television viewership, and Gossett would win an Emmy for his unforgettable work.1982‘An Officer and a Gentleman’Stream it on Max; rent or buy it on major platforms.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 Shares139 Views

      in Music

      Eleanor Collins, Canada’s ‘First Lady of Jazz,’ Dies at 104

      by

      A singer known for her mastery of standards, she found stardom in Canada on TV and in nightclubs. But she was virtually unknown in the United States.When the singer and pianist Nat King Cole’s 15-minute variety show debuted on NBC in November 1956, he made history as the first Black American to host a television program. But just over the country’s northern border, another Black entertainer had him beat: In the summer of 1955, Eleanor Collins had her own show on the CBC, Canada’s national broadcasting network.Though her show was a landmark in TV history — she was both the first woman and the first Black person to host a program in Canada — her selection was hardly a surprise.By the mid-1950s, Mrs. Collins was already widely regarded as Canada’s “first lady of jazz,” known for her mastery of the standards and her commanding performances on radio, early TV specials and in nightclubs around Vancouver, where she lived.“As a young man in the 1950s, having just started my radio career, I was mesmerized by Eleanor Collins,” the Canadian broadcaster Red Robinson wrote in The Vancouver Sun in 2006. “To me, she was Lena Horne and Sarah Vaughan all rolled into one. She had electric eyes and a voice to melt the hardest heart. I was in love with her.”Mrs. Collins was at home in the intimate environs of the jazz club. She had a knack for reading the room — she could easily be the center of attention, but if audience members were more interested in one another than in her, she was equally adept at providing background music.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

      How ‘3 Body Problem’ Created a Spectacular Disaster, With Strings Attached

      by

      Technical artists used a combination of digital and practical effects to slice an oil tanker into pieces in the fifth episode. Here’s how they did it.It begins slowly, almost soundlessly. As an oil tanker glides through the Panama Canal, the flow of a hose slows to a trickle. The hose has been sliced in two. Then the man holding the hose falls apart, his body severed at the knees and waist. Strands of nanofibers, each a hundredth the thickness of a human hair and strung across the canal at its narrowest point, knife through the ship, cutting smoothly through walls, through pipes, through flesh and bone. The sundered ship fans out like a deck of cards then collapses, smoldering. Every soul onboard — a thousand people, many of them children — has been killed.This harrowing sequence occurs in the fifth episode of the first season of “3 Body Problem,” the new Netflix adaptation of a popular science-fiction trilogy by the Chinese author Liu Cixin. Occurring in the first book, it lasts just a few pages and as a plot driver, it is minor. (The ship is destroyed to obtain a hard drive containing messages from an alien race.) But onscreen, as a marvel of televisual imagination and an example of a seamless integration of practical and computer-generated effects, the scene is unforgettable.“It’s basically an egg slicer going through this big tanker,” Stefen Fangmeier, a supervisor of visual effects, said. “You’ve never seen anything like that.”In the episode, nanomaterials created by Auggie Salazar (played by Eiza González as perhaps the world’s most beautiful materials physicist) are employed to deadly effect. To understand how the science might work, the series creators — David Benioff, D.B. Weiss and Alexander Woo — consulted Matt Kenzie, a physics professor at the University of Cambridge whose father had worked with Benioff and Weiss on “Game of Thrones.”Together they imagined how nanomaterials that don’t yet exist — or exist only in minute quantities in carefully controlled lab conditions — could be deployed. The goal wasn’t necessarily realism — “It’s a science-fiction show, so in some cases the fiction has to take precedence,” Kenzie said — but a sense of plausibility given current technology.“You try not to veer into things that just look wrong or cannot be possible,” Kenzie said.The opening moments of the sequence depict the nanofibers slicing through first a hose and then the man using it.NetflixWe 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