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"content": "\u003cp>When COVID-19 forced HBO’s \u003cem>Euphoria\u003c/em> to press pause on filming Season 2, it could have completely scuppered the show’s momentum. Season 1 ultimately succeeded in conveying the trials of Gen Z adolescence, but it also focused a little too much time and energy on proving how dysfunctional its characters were. In the end, \u003cem>Euphoria\u003c/em> worked because of the strength and commitment of its supremely talented cast, but it also occasionally got bogged down in its own desire to shock. [aside postid='pop_95643']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two special episodes to emerge out of the pandemic—“Rue,” which aired in December, and “Jules,” which started streaming over the weekend—have benefitted from slowing down their focus and allowing the show’s two lead characters to exhale. In taking the time to permit Rue (played by Zendaya) and Jules (Hunter Schafer) to verbalize everything they have going on internally, the show has managed to sharply pinpoint the agony of teenage life in a much more effective way than the first season did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1P5czi0H_g\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Sunday’s hour-long episode, Jules, 17 and trans, is seen in a therapy session. There, she discusses her relationship to men, to Rue—who recently crossed over from best friend to love interest—and to her own body. In Season 1, the agony of teen girlhood was conveyed, by and large, via a variety of characters dealing with physical and emotional exploitations. The girls were subjected to sexual assaults, coercion, pressure to take nude photos, and slut-shaming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of those things pose real threats to the lives of teenage girls, of course. But it was in Sunday’s episode that I was most viscerally reminded of the weight and near-constant discomfort inherent in being a teenage girl. Jules, in describing to her therapist why Rue felt so much like home, made a speech that took me right back to high school in a way no other piece of television ever has.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Most girls when you first talk to them, they automatically analyze and compare themselves to you. Then they search for where you fit into their hierarchy and treat you accordingly. Like, how close you are to what they collectively want to be in their heads. And even if they’ve mastered the art of hiding it with smiles and nods and small talk, you still catch them doing it. You know, their eyes wandering over your face, or the quick takes up and down your body. They watch how your clothes hang off your torso, or they look for what tags are on your clothes to see where you shop, or they’ll watch your hands to find fucked up cuticles or chipped nail polish. It would be a sensual experience if it wasn’t so fucking terrifying.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>So often television boils down the teen experience to girls being unnecessarily mean to each other. But here, we got much closer to the truth. Girls, under near-constant pressure to be the thinnest, the prettiest, the best dressed, take it out on each other even when they don’t mean to, because of living in a near-constant state of insecurity. Many can’t help but scrutinize others as a means to figure out what they’re doing wrong, or in what way they could be better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her special episode, Jules also talks about the realization that her attachment to taking hormones is, in part, rooted in trying to keep her voice high and her body small. And while she’s talking about her experience from a trans perspective, those sentiments ring true for a lot of adolescent girls. Smallness is, Jules believes, “what men want.” In real life, that belief system is one of the reasons puberty is considered a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3761220/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">critical risk period\u003c/a>” for eating disorders in girls. I don’t recall ever hearing this discussed on a fictional TV show in a way that didn’t also convey the girl as somehow vain, self-indulgent or self-destructive. [aside postid='pop_112407']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consistently in the show, Rue has been an example of a girl who has neither the time nor the energy to worry about such things. Instead, she has her grief, depression and addiction to contend with. But her unwillingness to do what is expected of her—her inability to fit in—is one of the things that alienates her from her peers and makes her feel so unlovable. Jules and Rue share deep feelings for each other precisely because they are both so different from the other girls. That’s why they know how to accept each other unconditionally. One scene in which Rue is seen lovingly helping Jules inject her hormones hammers the point home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you are an alienated teenager, finding a friend who will love you unconditionally and without judgment can be a literal life-saver. When we saw Rue in her special in December, alienated from Jules, she was once again so untethered, so uncomfortable in her own skin, that she expressed a desire to not “be here anymore.” It reminded me of conversations I had in my teens. Sometimes it was my friends saying it; sometimes it was me. That specific degree of pain—the pain of trying to find your place in a seemingly hostile world—had been wiped from my memory until \u003cem>Euphoria\u003c/em> brought it all screaming back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA1-ibkOzAA\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In these two special episodes, \u003cem>Euphoria\u003c/em> elevated its teen characters out of their narrow niches—the drug addict and the desperate-for-love trans girl—and gave them a depth that made them infinitely more relatable for much wider audiences. The specials successfully conveyed the small agonies that are ever-present for so many teenage girls, especially the ones who are a little bit different. And those intense and memorable performances from both Hunter Schafer and Zendaya were cathartic—not just for the teens still going through it, but for the countless adults who already survived it.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Who are you?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you saw Derek DelGaudio’s \u003cem>In & Of Itself \u003c/em>in its original incarnation as live theater, the first thing that happened was that as you went into the Daryl Roth Theatre, you passed a wall with little cards hanging on it, and you were meant to choose one. They said “I AM” on the top half, and then there was a word or a phrase on the bottom half. So you could choose “I AM the life of the party,” or “I AM a father,” or “I AM an accountant.” The first time I went to see it in October 2017, I had sold my book only a couple of months earlier, and it was a year and a half away from publication. I chose “I AM a novelist.” They collected the cards and tore them—you kept your I AM half, they kept the other half. The cards they kept were placed in a little stack. That’s how it started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I ultimately saw the show one more time with a friend in January 2018 (that time, I believe I chose “I AM a gamechanger” or something), because I couldn’t bear that no one I was close to had seen it and could talk about it with me. Now, a filmed adaptation is available on Hulu. And they’ve managed to do something that’s always hard with filmed theater and seemed like it was going to be almost impossible here: They’ve made this version feel very, very much the way one of the most powerful theatrical experiences I’ve ever had felt when I was in the room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DelGaudio is … well, he’s a storyteller, and he’s a performer, and he’s a magician. You’ll hear \u003cem>In & Of Itself \u003c/em>referred to as conceptual magic or interactive theater or a one-man show. Those things are all technically true, but they’re desperately incomplete. I might describe it as a series of vignettes, punctuated by some basic sleight-of-hand, some card tricks, and two of the most extraordinary audience-involved sequences I ever expect to see. I don’t understand—at all—how either was done. I have tried not to make too many guesses. I don’t want people to tell me their guesses. I know both sequences have earthly explanations, but I don’t need them. I don’t want them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_62BeXxd_jo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t mean to stall with the basics; I want to describe the show to you, because of how badly I want to persuade you to watch the film. But I knew essentially nothing when I first saw it except that it was kind of magic-adjacent and several people I trusted had recommended it. I want that for you. So I don’t want to tell you too much about the elephant, or the brick, or the boat, or the moment in the film when you can see a familiar audience member’s hand shaking with emotion. (The film is assembled from several live performances, so you’ll glimpse a handful of the many famous people who made their way into the theater at some point or another, but no attention is drawn to them unless you’re looking for it.) [aside postid='arts_13882001']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the traps of watching magic is that it can be like watching fireworks: At the beginning, there’s the startle that comes from just being reminded that a particular thing—explosions, or card tricks—can be really impressive and grand. But once you see that a couple of times, the effect quickly fades. And with magic, what are your choices once you’ve seen something flashy other than to either forget about it or fuss over how it was done? Once it’s over, what can you do with it, with the fact of it, other than try to ruin it for yourself? What’s special about this magic relative to a lot of lesser presentations is that it’s \u003cem>about \u003c/em>something. It’s about seeing people and being seen by them, and about how your own narrative of who you are—I AM a novelist, I AM a gamechanger—collides with stories about who you are that you didn’t get to write.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The place of magic in \u003cem>In & Of Itself\u003c/em> is not to amaze for amazement’s sake, although I was certainly stunned by some of what happened. It’s that the unreal is used to create the super-real: an experience you know not to take literally creates a truthful feeling of connectedness in an audience. You’ll see that feeling in the climax of the show, which starts about 15 minutes from the end of the film, and I can honestly, truly tell you it felt just like that to me when I saw it. The things you’re seeing aren’t literally what they seem, in the same way a body is not literally being sawed in half in another show, or a rabbit isn’t really spontaneously appearing in a hat. But the feeling was entirely genuine, in that it activated a part of me that craved that moment of being seen and identified and recognized as \u003cem>myself\u003c/em>, and that’s what you see in the often emotional reactions of DelGaudio’s audience in the film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Stay for the credits; there’s a series of photos and videos that reflect the way the show sends a bit of itself out into the world, out into the places where its specific illusions don’t persist.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not often but occasionally, you’ll see quick cuts through the same moment in the show as it happened during a bunch of performances, generally to demonstrate how it looked with all different people in the audience. It’s an effective technique, partly because it can put to rest some theories about how some of the show’s magic might have been accomplished (no, it was not the same person in that seat or in this situation every night) and partly to emphasize over and over one of the things that makes live theater special, which is that each performance only exists relative to its audience, especially with something like this. You never see \u003cem>the \u003c/em>show, only \u003cem>your \u003c/em>show. You see your show on your night, with your company, in your mood. In less expert hands, that could break the film by making each individual moment feel interchangeable, but director Frank Oz—who was also DelGaudio’s partner in the production of the original show—knows how to deploy those techniques sparingly, so that you’re just briefly reminded that this reality was created over and over, and it was always a little different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m probably always going to want to know how some of this was done, but I try not to think about it. Do not tell me. I prefer to sit quietly with my not-understanding, which is to say, my wonder. I AM a skeptic; I AM a critic; I AM a novelist; I AM satisfied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27In+%26+Of+Itself%27+Is+A+Study+Of+Identity+And+Magic&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the traps of watching magic is that it can be like watching fireworks: At the beginning, there’s the startle that comes from just being reminded that a particular thing—explosions, or card tricks—can be really impressive and grand. But once you see that a couple of times, the effect quickly fades. And with magic, what are your choices once you’ve seen something flashy other than to either forget about it or fuss over how it was done? Once it’s over, what can you do with it, with the fact of it, other than try to ruin it for yourself? What’s special about this magic relative to a lot of lesser presentations is that it’s \u003cem>about \u003c/em>something. It’s about seeing people and being seen by them, and about how your own narrative of who you are—I AM a novelist, I AM a gamechanger—collides with stories about who you are that you didn’t get to write.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The place of magic in \u003cem>In & Of Itself\u003c/em> is not to amaze for amazement’s sake, although I was certainly stunned by some of what happened. It’s that the unreal is used to create the super-real: an experience you know not to take literally creates a truthful feeling of connectedness in an audience. You’ll see that feeling in the climax of the show, which starts about 15 minutes from the end of the film, and I can honestly, truly tell you it felt just like that to me when I saw it. The things you’re seeing aren’t literally what they seem, in the same way a body is not literally being sawed in half in another show, or a rabbit isn’t really spontaneously appearing in a hat. But the feeling was entirely genuine, in that it activated a part of me that craved that moment of being seen and identified and recognized as \u003cem>myself\u003c/em>, and that’s what you see in the often emotional reactions of DelGaudio’s audience in the film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Stay for the credits; there’s a series of photos and videos that reflect the way the show sends a bit of itself out into the world, out into the places where its specific illusions don’t persist.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not often but occasionally, you’ll see quick cuts through the same moment in the show as it happened during a bunch of performances, generally to demonstrate how it looked with all different people in the audience. It’s an effective technique, partly because it can put to rest some theories about how some of the show’s magic might have been accomplished (no, it was not the same person in that seat or in this situation every night) and partly to emphasize over and over one of the things that makes live theater special, which is that each performance only exists relative to its audience, especially with something like this. You never see \u003cem>the \u003c/em>show, only \u003cem>your \u003c/em>show. You see your show on your night, with your company, in your mood. In less expert hands, that could break the film by making each individual moment feel interchangeable, but director Frank Oz—who was also DelGaudio’s partner in the production of the original show—knows how to deploy those techniques sparingly, so that you’re just briefly reminded that this reality was created over and over, and it was always a little different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>It’s been a while since we saw the logo of the Marvel Cinematic Universe—those fast-flipping comics pages, that stirring anthem of strings and brass and clashing cymbals—and I’m pleased to report that it retains its power to act as visual appetizer, whetting our collective palate for the mix of iconic, larger-than-life, vibrantly colored acts of selfless heroism, cosmic stakes and petty intra-hero squabbling that is the Marvel brand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s tacked to the opening of all nine episodes of \u003cem>WandaVision\u003c/em>, the Disney+ series that finds Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and a mysteriously reconstructed Vision (Paul Bettany’s character died at the end of \u003cem>Infinity War\u003c/em>, you will be forgiven for not remembering) starting a quiet life in the suburbs—the suburbs of 1950s America, in particular: tract houses, subdivisions, cul-de-sacs and white picket fences. [aside postid='pop_109932']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The disconnect between the pulse-pounding MCU logo and the pilot’s’ I-Like-Ike setting is jarring, yes—imagine a meal starting with a spoonful of Massaman curry followed by a PB&J—but that’s purely intentional. Because the suburbs in question aren’t strictly those of 1950s suburbia as it truly existed, but rather how it was depicted at the time, in American sitcoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given that the next phase of the MCU is moving to Disney+, it makes sense that its first installment should take the form of extended homage to television itself. And given the lead characters involved—two Avengers whose romantic relationship, though long-established over decades of comics, only managed to snatch a few minutes of MCU screentime — it’s also logical enough that the sitcom in question should be of the domestic variety, in which a young couple navigates the demands of the office (him), social demands (her, mostly) and kids (again: her, mostly).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But here’s the challenge: The audience is ahead of the characters. From the opening shots, as the spritely theme song kicks in, we know the deal. Something or someone has trapped these characters in this clean, freshly scrubbed, laughtracked, black-and-white virtual Levittown (Westview, technically), and it’s only a matter of time before they figure it out, escape, kick said something/one’s butt, and reconnect to the greater MCU.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trapped-in-television thing has been done before, in and out of superhero fiction, many, many, \u003cem>many \u003c/em>times. Sometimes as pure parody, sometimes as pastiche or homage, but always as a plot device—a trap to be escaped from, a hurdle to be cleared so they can get on with their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The makers of \u003cem>WandaVision\u003c/em> seem to be betting on our savviness in this regard, and our impatience. The tactic they have chosen to combat it is to withhold what they know we’re clamoring for—big superhero action, wider Marvel universe interconnectivity—and instead double down on the details of the execution of this sitcom universe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj9J2ecsSpo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first three episodes of the series made available to the press dole out any clues to what is really going on outside the characters’ sitcom Purgatory with a frustrating parsimoniousness. Importantly, however, the revelations that do come—usually in the last few minutes of any given episode—are different enough in kind and in scope to deepen the mystery, rather than merely reiterate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The gamble the team behind \u003cem>WandaVision\u003c/em> is making is that if they truly commit to the reality of Wanda and Vision’s unreality—if they treat the sitcom simulacrum not as a joke or a plot point, but instead embrace its every aspect without irony, then we will too. [aside postid='arts_13872364']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What they’ve created, as a result, is in many ways an American Studies seminar focusing on the sitcom’s status as a reflection of cultural change. The pilot’s a 1950s sitcom—think \u003cem>I Love Lucy/Leave It To Beaver\u003c/em>. Episode Two offers a subtle shift into the television comedies of the sixties—\u003cem>The Dick Van Dyke Show\u003c/em> shading into \u003cem>Bewitched\u003c/em>, in particular. The third episode explodes in a riot of \u003cem>Brady Bunch\u003c/em> colors and polyester and shag carpeting—and, presumably, so on, through the following episodes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is striking is how straight this conceit is played, and with what assiduous attention to detail it is wrought. In interviews, the cast has talked about the “sitcom boot camp” they attended, which consisted of studying episodes of sitcoms from different eras. It shows: Watch how the great Kathryn Hahn, playing nosy neighbor Agnes, holds her arms as she talks, how her pinkies remain preternaturally extended. Listen to how Olsen’s wry delivery in the first episode slides into something more earnest and bubbly in the second. Notice how the series’ special effects—as when Wanda must use her telekinesis to whip up a quick meal—remain rigorously period-appropriate (the wires holding up the mixing bowl and the whisk have been CGI’d out, but the stiff artificiality of it all remains). And, mostly, take note of how unsettling it becomes at those moments when the pilot’s bright multi-camera, shot-before-a-live-studio audience \u003cem>mis-en-scene\u003c/em> abruptly switches to a single-camera close-up of a character’s face steeped in foreboding shadows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s effective, this dedication to the tone, look and feel of the sitcom genre. How else to explain why, despite knowing it’s all an illusion, we find ourselves truly invested in the frippery of a given episode’s ostensible plot—Will Vision’s boss be impressed when he comes to dinner? Will their powers get revealed? Will they win the town’s talent contest? Etc.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There will be plenty of Marvel fans who’ll prove unwilling or unable to suspend their impatience long enough to get to what is sure to be an impressive fireworks factory, down around episodes eight or nine or so, probably. It’s a lot to ask of people who aren’t sufficiently interested in the sitcom as a genre to appreciate the series’ deep meditation on that most American of texts, and nod approvingly at, for example, its production design—at the way, in early episodes, Wanda and Vision’s home smashes together the \u003cem>Bewitched \u003c/em>living room and the \u003cem>Dick Van Dyke Show\u003c/em> kitchen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for others—perhaps most especially those who are given to bemoaning the MCU’s formulaic, predictable quality—\u003cem>WandaVision\u003c/em>‘s commitment to confounding expectations might offer something few franchises as hoary as this one ever do—a fresh, surprising way in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27WandaVision%27%3A+The+Next+Era+Of+The+MCU+Will+Be+Televised&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s been a while since we saw the logo of the Marvel Cinematic Universe—those fast-flipping comics pages, that stirring anthem of strings and brass and clashing cymbals—and I’m pleased to report that it retains its power to act as visual appetizer, whetting our collective palate for the mix of iconic, larger-than-life, vibrantly colored acts of selfless heroism, cosmic stakes and petty intra-hero squabbling that is the Marvel brand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s tacked to the opening of all nine episodes of \u003cem>WandaVision\u003c/em>, the Disney+ series that finds Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and a mysteriously reconstructed Vision (Paul Bettany’s character died at the end of \u003cem>Infinity War\u003c/em>, you will be forgiven for not remembering) starting a quiet life in the suburbs—the suburbs of 1950s America, in particular: tract houses, subdivisions, cul-de-sacs and white picket fences. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The disconnect between the pulse-pounding MCU logo and the pilot’s’ I-Like-Ike setting is jarring, yes—imagine a meal starting with a spoonful of Massaman curry followed by a PB&J—but that’s purely intentional. Because the suburbs in question aren’t strictly those of 1950s suburbia as it truly existed, but rather how it was depicted at the time, in American sitcoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given that the next phase of the MCU is moving to Disney+, it makes sense that its first installment should take the form of extended homage to television itself. And given the lead characters involved—two Avengers whose romantic relationship, though long-established over decades of comics, only managed to snatch a few minutes of MCU screentime — it’s also logical enough that the sitcom in question should be of the domestic variety, in which a young couple navigates the demands of the office (him), social demands (her, mostly) and kids (again: her, mostly).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But here’s the challenge: The audience is ahead of the characters. From the opening shots, as the spritely theme song kicks in, we know the deal. Something or someone has trapped these characters in this clean, freshly scrubbed, laughtracked, black-and-white virtual Levittown (Westview, technically), and it’s only a matter of time before they figure it out, escape, kick said something/one’s butt, and reconnect to the greater MCU.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trapped-in-television thing has been done before, in and out of superhero fiction, many, many, \u003cem>many \u003c/em>times. Sometimes as pure parody, sometimes as pastiche or homage, but always as a plot device—a trap to be escaped from, a hurdle to be cleared so they can get on with their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The makers of \u003cem>WandaVision\u003c/em> seem to be betting on our savviness in this regard, and our impatience. The tactic they have chosen to combat it is to withhold what they know we’re clamoring for—big superhero action, wider Marvel universe interconnectivity—and instead double down on the details of the execution of this sitcom universe.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/sj9J2ecsSpo'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/sj9J2ecsSpo'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The first three episodes of the series made available to the press dole out any clues to what is really going on outside the characters’ sitcom Purgatory with a frustrating parsimoniousness. Importantly, however, the revelations that do come—usually in the last few minutes of any given episode—are different enough in kind and in scope to deepen the mystery, rather than merely reiterate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The gamble the team behind \u003cem>WandaVision\u003c/em> is making is that if they truly commit to the reality of Wanda and Vision’s unreality—if they treat the sitcom simulacrum not as a joke or a plot point, but instead embrace its every aspect without irony, then we will too. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What they’ve created, as a result, is in many ways an American Studies seminar focusing on the sitcom’s status as a reflection of cultural change. The pilot’s a 1950s sitcom—think \u003cem>I Love Lucy/Leave It To Beaver\u003c/em>. Episode Two offers a subtle shift into the television comedies of the sixties—\u003cem>The Dick Van Dyke Show\u003c/em> shading into \u003cem>Bewitched\u003c/em>, in particular. The third episode explodes in a riot of \u003cem>Brady Bunch\u003c/em> colors and polyester and shag carpeting—and, presumably, so on, through the following episodes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is striking is how straight this conceit is played, and with what assiduous attention to detail it is wrought. In interviews, the cast has talked about the “sitcom boot camp” they attended, which consisted of studying episodes of sitcoms from different eras. It shows: Watch how the great Kathryn Hahn, playing nosy neighbor Agnes, holds her arms as she talks, how her pinkies remain preternaturally extended. Listen to how Olsen’s wry delivery in the first episode slides into something more earnest and bubbly in the second. Notice how the series’ special effects—as when Wanda must use her telekinesis to whip up a quick meal—remain rigorously period-appropriate (the wires holding up the mixing bowl and the whisk have been CGI’d out, but the stiff artificiality of it all remains). And, mostly, take note of how unsettling it becomes at those moments when the pilot’s bright multi-camera, shot-before-a-live-studio audience \u003cem>mis-en-scene\u003c/em> abruptly switches to a single-camera close-up of a character’s face steeped in foreboding shadows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s effective, this dedication to the tone, look and feel of the sitcom genre. How else to explain why, despite knowing it’s all an illusion, we find ourselves truly invested in the frippery of a given episode’s ostensible plot—Will Vision’s boss be impressed when he comes to dinner? Will their powers get revealed? Will they win the town’s talent contest? Etc.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There will be plenty of Marvel fans who’ll prove unwilling or unable to suspend their impatience long enough to get to what is sure to be an impressive fireworks factory, down around episodes eight or nine or so, probably. It’s a lot to ask of people who aren’t sufficiently interested in the sitcom as a genre to appreciate the series’ deep meditation on that most American of texts, and nod approvingly at, for example, its production design—at the way, in early episodes, Wanda and Vision’s home smashes together the \u003cem>Bewitched \u003c/em>living room and the \u003cem>Dick Van Dyke Show\u003c/em> kitchen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for others—perhaps most especially those who are given to bemoaning the MCU’s formulaic, predictable quality—\u003cem>WandaVision\u003c/em>‘s commitment to confounding expectations might offer something few franchises as hoary as this one ever do—a fresh, surprising way in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27WandaVision%27%3A+The+Next+Era+Of+The+MCU+Will+Be+Televised&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Joanne Rogers, an an accomplished concert pianist who celebrated and protected the legacy of her husband, the beloved children’s TV host Mister Rogers, has died in Pittsburgh. She was 92.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rogers died Thursday, according to the Fred Rogers Center. No cause of death was given. The center called her “a joyful and tender-hearted spirit, whose heart and wisdom have guided our work in service of Fred’s enduring legacy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joanne and Fred Rogers were married for more than 50 years, spanning the launch and end of the low-key, low-tech “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” which presented Fred Rogers as one adult in a busy world who always had time to listen to children. His pull as America’s favorite neighbor never seemed to wane before his death in 2003.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t think of a time when we’ve needed him so much,” Joanne Rogers told The Associated Press in 2018. “I think his work is just as timely now as it was when it came out, frankly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An ordained Presbyterian minister, Fred Rogers produced the pioneering show at Pittsburgh public television station WQED beginning in 1966, going national two years later. He composed his own songs for the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It offered a soft haven for kids, in sharp contrast to the louder, more animated competition. The final episode of what his widow called “a comfortable lap” aired in August 2001.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PBS stations around the country still air “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and some can be found on the PBS Kids video app. There are DVD collections on Amazon and episodes stream on Amazon Prime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fred Rogers’ effect on popular culture was profound: Eddie Murphy parodied him on “Saturday Night Live” in the 1980s and one of Rogers’ trademark zip-up sweaters hangs in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. He’s had a category dedicated to him on “Jeopardy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2018, the 50th anniversary of when Rogers first appeared on TV screens, prompted a PBS special, a new postage stamp, the feature-length documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and, a year later, the Tom Hanks-led biopic “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Born Sara Joanne Byrd in 1928, Joanne Rogers met her future husband at Rollins College in Florida. After Fred Rogers’ death, she helped develop the Fred Rogers Center Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at St. Vincent College in his hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Joanne and Fred were Pennsylvania treasures committed to improving our communities and the lives of our children. We will never forget their legacy of kindness,” Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She is survived by two sons, James Byrd Rogers and John Rogers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Associated Press reporter Michael Rubinkam contributed to this report from Pennsylvania.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Joanne Rogers, an an accomplished concert pianist who celebrated and protected the legacy of her husband, the beloved children’s TV host Mister Rogers, has died in Pittsburgh. She was 92.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rogers died Thursday, according to the Fred Rogers Center. No cause of death was given. The center called her “a joyful and tender-hearted spirit, whose heart and wisdom have guided our work in service of Fred’s enduring legacy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joanne and Fred Rogers were married for more than 50 years, spanning the launch and end of the low-key, low-tech “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” which presented Fred Rogers as one adult in a busy world who always had time to listen to children. His pull as America’s favorite neighbor never seemed to wane before his death in 2003.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t think of a time when we’ve needed him so much,” Joanne Rogers told The Associated Press in 2018. “I think his work is just as timely now as it was when it came out, frankly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An ordained Presbyterian minister, Fred Rogers produced the pioneering show at Pittsburgh public television station WQED beginning in 1966, going national two years later. He composed his own songs for the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It offered a soft haven for kids, in sharp contrast to the louder, more animated competition. The final episode of what his widow called “a comfortable lap” aired in August 2001.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PBS stations around the country still air “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and some can be found on the PBS Kids video app. There are DVD collections on Amazon and episodes stream on Amazon Prime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fred Rogers’ effect on popular culture was profound: Eddie Murphy parodied him on “Saturday Night Live” in the 1980s and one of Rogers’ trademark zip-up sweaters hangs in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. He’s had a category dedicated to him on “Jeopardy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2018, the 50th anniversary of when Rogers first appeared on TV screens, prompted a PBS special, a new postage stamp, the feature-length documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and, a year later, the Tom Hanks-led biopic “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Born Sara Joanne Byrd in 1928, Joanne Rogers met her future husband at Rollins College in Florida. After Fred Rogers’ death, she helped develop the Fred Rogers Center Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at St. Vincent College in his hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Joanne and Fred were Pennsylvania treasures committed to improving our communities and the lives of our children. We will never forget their legacy of kindness,” Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She is survived by two sons, James Byrd Rogers and John Rogers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Associated Press reporter Michael Rubinkam contributed to this report from Pennsylvania.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>President-elect Joe Biden may not have big crowds at his coronavirus-limited inauguration, but he won’t be lacking for star power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Presidential Inaugural Committee announced Thursday that pop star Lady Gaga will sing the National Anthem and Jennifer Lopez will perform a musical number at the Capitol ceremony next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other participants will include Leo J. O’Donovan, a Jesuit priest and former Georgetown University president who will lead the invocation, and Andrea Hall, the first Black woman to be named captain with the South Fulton Fire and Rescue Department in Georgia, who will lead the Pledge of Allegiance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There will also be a poetry reading by Amanda Gorman, the first-ever national Youth Poet Laureate. The Rev. Silvester Beaman, pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Wilmington, Del., will conduct the benediction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement of their participation comes one day after word that Tom Hanks will host a \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-inauguration-tv-special-425933c038629dba55d56ac569e83d38\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">90-minute primetime TV special\u003c/a> celebrating Biden’s inauguration. Other performers for the special include Justin Timberlake, Jon Bon Jovi, Demi Lovato and Ant Clemons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In making the inauguration announcement, the CEO of the inaugural committee, Tony Allen, said that the participants “represent one clear picture of the grand diversity of our great nation and will help honor and celebrate the time-honored traditions of the presidential inauguration as President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris take the oath of office on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement notes that Lady Gaga “worked closely with President-elect Biden’s ‘It’s On Us’ campaign to address sexual assault on college campuses” and that Lopez and her partner, former baseball player Alex Rodriguez, “have been outspoken about the disproportionate impact of coronavirus on Latinos and the need to contain the virus, rebuild the economy, and unify the country.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allen said the group is also committed to the president-elect and the vice president-elect’s “steadfast vision of a new chapter in our American story in which we are an America united in overcoming the deep divisions and challenges facing our people, unifying the country, and restoring the soul of our nation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ceremony will be held on Jan. 20 on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. It will take place just two weeks after the Capitol was ransacked by a pro-Trump mob seeking to stop the counting of Electoral College votes showing Biden and Harris won the election. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Capitol and the U.S. Supreme Court across the street are now surrounded by nonscalable fencing with troops stationed in and around the buildings. On Wednesday, Trump became the first president to be impeached twice because of his actions leading up to the violence Jan. 6. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attendance at the inauguration will be limited, with members of Congress being given just one ticket because of the coronavirus. In addition, local government leaders are urging people not to come to Washington that day because of threats of violence, following last week’s storming of the Capitol. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Lady+Gaga%2C+J-Lo+To+Headline+Biden+Inauguration&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>President-elect Joe Biden may not have big crowds at his coronavirus-limited inauguration, but he won’t be lacking for star power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Presidential Inaugural Committee announced Thursday that pop star Lady Gaga will sing the National Anthem and Jennifer Lopez will perform a musical number at the Capitol ceremony next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other participants will include Leo J. O’Donovan, a Jesuit priest and former Georgetown University president who will lead the invocation, and Andrea Hall, the first Black woman to be named captain with the South Fulton Fire and Rescue Department in Georgia, who will lead the Pledge of Allegiance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There will also be a poetry reading by Amanda Gorman, the first-ever national Youth Poet Laureate. The Rev. Silvester Beaman, pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Wilmington, Del., will conduct the benediction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement of their participation comes one day after word that Tom Hanks will host a \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-inauguration-tv-special-425933c038629dba55d56ac569e83d38\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">90-minute primetime TV special\u003c/a> celebrating Biden’s inauguration. Other performers for the special include Justin Timberlake, Jon Bon Jovi, Demi Lovato and Ant Clemons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In making the inauguration announcement, the CEO of the inaugural committee, Tony Allen, said that the participants “represent one clear picture of the grand diversity of our great nation and will help honor and celebrate the time-honored traditions of the presidential inauguration as President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris take the oath of office on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement notes that Lady Gaga “worked closely with President-elect Biden’s ‘It’s On Us’ campaign to address sexual assault on college campuses” and that Lopez and her partner, former baseball player Alex Rodriguez, “have been outspoken about the disproportionate impact of coronavirus on Latinos and the need to contain the virus, rebuild the economy, and unify the country.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allen said the group is also committed to the president-elect and the vice president-elect’s “steadfast vision of a new chapter in our American story in which we are an America united in overcoming the deep divisions and challenges facing our people, unifying the country, and restoring the soul of our nation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ceremony will be held on Jan. 20 on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. It will take place just two weeks after the Capitol was ransacked by a pro-Trump mob seeking to stop the counting of Electoral College votes showing Biden and Harris won the election. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Capitol and the U.S. Supreme Court across the street are now surrounded by nonscalable fencing with troops stationed in and around the buildings. On Wednesday, Trump became the first president to be impeached twice because of his actions leading up to the violence Jan. 6. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attendance at the inauguration will be limited, with members of Congress being given just one ticket because of the coronavirus. In addition, local government leaders are urging people not to come to Washington that day because of threats of violence, following last week’s storming of the Capitol. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Lady+Gaga%2C+J-Lo+To+Headline+Biden+Inauguration&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Need a Break? The Pets and Vets of 'All Creatures Great and Small' Might Hit the Spot",
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"content": "\u003cp>When young veterinarian James Herriot first opened his eyes and saw the richly green hills around Darrowby in the new adaptation of \u003cem>All Creatures Great And Small\u003c/em>, I felt my shoulders drop. When he saw the village tucked—it must be said—adorably into the valley between them, I felt my breathing slow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Darrowby is the fictional setting for the real James Herriot’s books about his life as a vet in Yorkshire, England, and the new \u003cem>All Creatures Great and Small \u003c/em>that arrived on PBS on Sunday night after a successful run in the UK is the second television version of those stories to feature a fictionalized Herriot (here played by Nicholas Ralph) joining the veterinary practice of Siegfried Farnon (Samuel West) and, eventually, Siegfried’s brother Tristan (Callum Woodhouse). The first version ran from 1978 to 1990, and while I remember almost nothing about it, it’s one of the shows that formed my general impression of PBS shows when I was young: gentle, calm, funny without a laugh track, and very popular with parents, mine included. And now, as a person older than they were at the time, I have—not for the first time—come around to their way of thinking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new \u003cem>All Creatures Great and Small \u003c/em>is, above all else, soothing. Not because it is mindless or merely distracting, but because the slice of humanity that it focuses on is a slice taken from the better rather than the worst of what we can be. Is this a lot to ask of a show that adapts stories about taking care of animals in a beautiful setting in 1930s England? Maybe. But for all its simplicity, it has a real and resonant core, in that the drama comes not from external and fanciful circumstances, but from the day-to-day matters of family and work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family here is Herriot, the two Farnons, and Mrs. Hall (Anna Madeley), who takes care of Siegfried’s house, where they all live and where the veterinary practice is located. The first season, which consists of six episodes and the beloved traditional Christmas episode (an idea the UK embraces and American television usually doesn’t, to its detriment), establishes this family with its loving but complicated relationships. The stories are focused as much on mentoring and teaching and caring for people—and the drama and comedy that naturally follow—as so many shows are on harming and forgiving and enabling people. There is something to be said for the realism of television that reminds us uncannily of our worst and most toxic relationships; this is television meant to remind us of the contours of our best ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZzFjeQFpro\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As played by Ralph, who gets the rarely-seen “introducing” credit, James Herriot is a nervous but committed young vet who leaves home and family in Glasgow to take one of the few vet jobs that’s open now that the world is turning from horses to cars: the Yorkshire practice of Siegfried Farnon. Siegfried sees cows and bulls, working horses and racehorses, sheep and goats, cats and dogs, and birds and ferrets. He is the vet in Darrowby, and they’re all his responsibility—especially since he tends to toss his assistants in short order. He’s haughty but also dryly funny, and Mrs. Hall’s obvious fondness for him, while it calls to mind a lot of other housekeeper-homeowner relationships of fiction, helps to humanize him. Shortly after James arrives, Siegfried’s ne’er-do-well brother Tristan blows back into town after failing his vet school exams. Siegfried practically raised Tristan from adolescence, so this sets up a dynamic in which if you squint, Siegfried and Mrs. Hall (whose name is Audrey, it will turn out) are the parents, and James and Tristan are the sons: the older one responsible and shy, the younger one brash and charming and prone to screwing up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So really, what unfolds is a chosen-family story, with dashes of cute dogs and pregnant cows and an underlying recognition that animals, for many residents of Darrowby, are the most important property they own as well as revered living creatures. The reason a vet in Yorkshire is such a rich well of stories is not only because animals are interesting or they get a lot of weird diseases. It’s because in a farming community, animals are adjacent to wealth, to power, to business, to sport, to families, to children, to making a living. They are adjacent to everything important, so vets know the rich and the poor, the honest and the dishonest. Siegfried’s practice is everything to this community. In fact, one of the best episodes finds James doing his first turn as the vet at the local fair, measuring ponies and judging the pet contest, and it reminded me a pinch—just a \u003cem>pinch\u003c/em>—of the episode of \u003cem>Schitt’s Creek \u003c/em>where the family winds up dancing in the barn. It is about what it means to be joined to a community, with all its joys and frustrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are, unsurprisingly, women other than Audrey who come into the lives of the three men. The only one it seems sporting to discuss is Helen Alderson (Rachel Shenton), who lives on one of the farms Herriot visits. Helen is independent and capable (at most things), but also funny and observant, and she seems a bit fascinated by the new vet’s assistant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PBS will be running these episodes once a week through the rest of January and February (and making them available on demand), and when you reach the end, there is another sigh, just like the one that comes with the first view of the rolling hills. It’s the satisfaction of a well-designed first season of what I hope will be a long run. Particularly at a time when rest is important and exhaling is important, perhaps a beautiful setting, some fine performances and a high regard for what happens inside a home between people who care for each other will be just what the (ahem) doctor ordered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Need+A+Break%3F+The+Pets+And+Vets+Of+%27All+Creatures+Great+And+Small%27+Might+Hit+The+Spot&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As played by Ralph, who gets the rarely-seen “introducing” credit, James Herriot is a nervous but committed young vet who leaves home and family in Glasgow to take one of the few vet jobs that’s open now that the world is turning from horses to cars: the Yorkshire practice of Siegfried Farnon. Siegfried sees cows and bulls, working horses and racehorses, sheep and goats, cats and dogs, and birds and ferrets. He is the vet in Darrowby, and they’re all his responsibility—especially since he tends to toss his assistants in short order. He’s haughty but also dryly funny, and Mrs. Hall’s obvious fondness for him, while it calls to mind a lot of other housekeeper-homeowner relationships of fiction, helps to humanize him. Shortly after James arrives, Siegfried’s ne’er-do-well brother Tristan blows back into town after failing his vet school exams. Siegfried practically raised Tristan from adolescence, so this sets up a dynamic in which if you squint, Siegfried and Mrs. Hall (whose name is Audrey, it will turn out) are the parents, and James and Tristan are the sons: the older one responsible and shy, the younger one brash and charming and prone to screwing up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So really, what unfolds is a chosen-family story, with dashes of cute dogs and pregnant cows and an underlying recognition that animals, for many residents of Darrowby, are the most important property they own as well as revered living creatures. The reason a vet in Yorkshire is such a rich well of stories is not only because animals are interesting or they get a lot of weird diseases. It’s because in a farming community, animals are adjacent to wealth, to power, to business, to sport, to families, to children, to making a living. They are adjacent to everything important, so vets know the rich and the poor, the honest and the dishonest. Siegfried’s practice is everything to this community. In fact, one of the best episodes finds James doing his first turn as the vet at the local fair, measuring ponies and judging the pet contest, and it reminded me a pinch—just a \u003cem>pinch\u003c/em>—of the episode of \u003cem>Schitt’s Creek \u003c/em>where the family winds up dancing in the barn. It is about what it means to be joined to a community, with all its joys and frustrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are, unsurprisingly, women other than Audrey who come into the lives of the three men. The only one it seems sporting to discuss is Helen Alderson (Rachel Shenton), who lives on one of the farms Herriot visits. Helen is independent and capable (at most things), but also funny and observant, and she seems a bit fascinated by the new vet’s assistant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PBS will be running these episodes once a week through the rest of January and February (and making them available on demand), and when you reach the end, there is another sigh, just like the one that comes with the first view of the rolling hills. It’s the satisfaction of a well-designed first season of what I hope will be a long run. Particularly at a time when rest is important and exhaling is important, perhaps a beautiful setting, some fine performances and a high regard for what happens inside a home between people who care for each other will be just what the (ahem) doctor ordered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Need+A+Break%3F+The+Pets+And+Vets+Of+%27All+Creatures+Great+And+Small%27+Might+Hit+The+Spot&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Fran Lebowitz's 'Pretend It's a City' is the NYC Trip You Can't Take Right Now",
"headTitle": "Fran Lebowitz’s ‘Pretend It’s a City’ is the NYC Trip You Can’t Take Right Now | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Iconoclastic humorist \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/books/authors/657929490/fran-lebowitz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fran Lebowitz\u003c/a> used to be known as a writer. Back in the late 1970s and ’80s she released two popular collections of essays featuring her cutting observations and opinions about life. But that part of her career was cut short by a decades long case of writer’s block—now she’s known for talking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Netflix series, \u003cem>Pretend It’s a City\u003c/em>, features Lebowitz in conversation with Martin Scorsese—who directed both the new series and the 2010 HBO documentary about Lebowitz, \u003cem>Public Speaking. \u003c/em>Lebowitz has known Scorsese for so long she’s no longer certain of how they met—though she thinks it was probably at a party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whenever I saw Marty at a party, I would spend most of the evening talking to Marty,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the new series, Lebowitz talks about why she cleaned apartments in her 20s when her friends were making more money waitressing, working as a New York City cab driver in the 1970s, getting kicked out of high school in New Jersey, and her collection of 10,000 books. Many of her stories center on Manhattan—a place both she and Scorsese feel deeply connected to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We both have such a strong connection to New York that, in fact, when I made my deal with Marty for \u003cem>Public Speaking\u003c/em> … Marty said, ‘OK, here’s the deal. We don’t leave Manhattan,’ ” Lebowitz says. “In \u003cem>Pretend It’s a City\u003c/em>, we did go to Queens [and it was] something Marty talked about as if we were going to Afghanistan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MClMxqD-HNA\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Interview highlights \u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On living alone during the COVID-19 pandemic \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, it still seems to me to be by far the best choice. I cannot understand how people who do not live alone have stood this last 10 months, because the only upside of having to stay in my apartment is at least there was no one else there. I would find that unbearable, I mean, truly unbearable. … At the very beginning [of the pandemic], this guy I know, this friend of mine sent me, like, one million dollars worth of orchids saying, “These are to keep you company.” And I thought, really? I mean, thank you. They’re beautiful, but I keep myself company. So I don’t feel that living alone is a drawback during this. I think it’s an asset. …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Truthfully, I really never get lonely. I mean, I certainly can say that there are people that I miss, specific people that I’ve missed in my life numerous times, some very grievously. But a kind of abstract loneliness? No.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On being comfortable as herself and not being envious of others \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m always surprised that people, adults, look to other people—even for things like haircuts. I just never thought about it. I don’t know why. But that was true even when I was a little kid. I don’t have a habit of comparing myself to other people. … The few times in my life I felt deeply envious, the feeling was so repellent to me that I thought, “God, this must be what it’s like to be these people who are constantly envious of other people.” … It’s less surprising that, say, teenagers feel that way. But I know a lot of adults who feel that way, and I think it is just ridiculous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On being a lifelong germaphobe \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve always been very careful about touching things. … I’ve never touched a single thing in the New York City subway system—ever. Usually I’m by myself on the subway, but a few times I remember … [I was] with someone, and he said to me, when we got out, he said, “You didn’t touch anything.” And I said, “No.” And the truth is, if I dropped the Hope Diamond on the floor of a subway car, I’d leave it there. I’d say, “Well, you know, it’s just the Hope Diamond.” [aside postid='pop_8412']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I’ve, of course, seen people pick things up from the floor. I, at least once, was sitting across from a woman with a baby, and the pacifier fell out of the baby’s mouth. The woman picked it up, wiped it off on her shirt and put it back in the baby’s mouth. I really thought one of two things going to happen to that baby: Either he’s going to drop dead right now or he’ll live to be a million years old, because he’s just been exposed to every germ and virus on the planet Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On getting elected class president of her all-girls school and then shortly thereafter being expelled \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, the difference is that the kids elected to be president and the headmaster threw me out. … The official reason he threw me out was he said, “I was a terrible influence on the other girls and I was usurping his power.” Whatever that meant, I have no idea. …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I always felt that I was punished for things unfairly. In other words, when I got thrown out of school for years afterward, people say, what did you do? And I know I was expected to say, “I started a revolution.” “I set fire to the gym.” But I really didn’t do anything. And I really think that what I got expelled for was what my mother used to call “that look on your face.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On driving a taxi cab in New York in her early 20s in the ’70s \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I drove a taxi because I don’t have any skills. I didn’t know how to do anything else. … I also didn’t want to do the job that most of my friends did, which was wait tables, because I didn’t want to have to be nice to men to get tips or to sleep with the manager of my shift, which was a common requirement then for being a waitress in New York. So I didn’t want to have a boss, which you don’t in either one of those jobs. Cab driving as a profession was completely different than it is now, because there were these garages with big fleets. Someone would own, like, 40 cabs or maybe more. So you could pick up a cab any shift, you could always make money so that if you woke up in your apartment with no money—a frequent occurrence in my life—I could go pick up a cab. At the end of eight hours, I had money. So that to me was a great thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On working for Andy Warhol’s \u003c/strong>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Interview \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>magazine and not getting along with Warhol \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I would say that Andy didn’t like me and that I did not like Andy. I noticed right away how many people around him died. … There was a tremendous amount of encouragement of people already teetering on the brink of sanity. … And Andy would feed these fantasies they had of themselves, because it amused him and it was also lucrative for him. And I just didn’t want to be really around that. I think that Andy realized that, or maybe I just wasn’t his cup of tea, but I didn’t have arguments with Andy, because I never had much conversation with Andy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On her longtime friendship with Toni Morrison \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So if you didn’t know Toni personally, you would not know how much fun Toni was. Toni was really fun. … Most of the time we were laughing. She was really fun. In fact, when I first knew Toni, she was still working at Random House as an editor, and … at that point, my publisher, and my editor called me and said … “[The President of Random House called] me and you have to stop hanging around in Toni Morrison’s office because [the president] was complaining because you’re hanging around in there and the two of you are laughing all the time and she’s not getting her work done.” …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I even once, not that long ago, met a man who taught at Princeton and Toni taught at Princeton much after this, and he said, “I used to have the office next to Toni Morrison. And you and Toni Morrison really annoyed me with all your laughing.” So apparently, the fact that we are laughing is what really annoys people. Of course, men always don’t like to hear women laughing together, because they think you’re laughing about them. But I would say that’s probably the thing we had in common was liking to laugh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Heidi Saman and Kayla Lattimore produced and edited the audio of this interview. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the Web.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 Fresh Air. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fresh Air\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Fran+Lebowitz%27s+%27Pretend+It%27s+A+City%27+Is+The+NYC+Trip+You+Can%27t+Take+Right+Now&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Iconoclastic humorist \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/books/authors/657929490/fran-lebowitz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fran Lebowitz\u003c/a> used to be known as a writer. Back in the late 1970s and ’80s she released two popular collections of essays featuring her cutting observations and opinions about life. But that part of her career was cut short by a decades long case of writer’s block—now she’s known for talking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Netflix series, \u003cem>Pretend It’s a City\u003c/em>, features Lebowitz in conversation with Martin Scorsese—who directed both the new series and the 2010 HBO documentary about Lebowitz, \u003cem>Public Speaking. \u003c/em>Lebowitz has known Scorsese for so long she’s no longer certain of how they met—though she thinks it was probably at a party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whenever I saw Marty at a party, I would spend most of the evening talking to Marty,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the new series, Lebowitz talks about why she cleaned apartments in her 20s when her friends were making more money waitressing, working as a New York City cab driver in the 1970s, getting kicked out of high school in New Jersey, and her collection of 10,000 books. Many of her stories center on Manhattan—a place both she and Scorsese feel deeply connected to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We both have such a strong connection to New York that, in fact, when I made my deal with Marty for \u003cem>Public Speaking\u003c/em> … Marty said, ‘OK, here’s the deal. We don’t leave Manhattan,’ ” Lebowitz says. “In \u003cem>Pretend It’s a City\u003c/em>, we did go to Queens [and it was] something Marty talked about as if we were going to Afghanistan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/MClMxqD-HNA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/MClMxqD-HNA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003chr>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Interview highlights \u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On living alone during the COVID-19 pandemic \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, it still seems to me to be by far the best choice. I cannot understand how people who do not live alone have stood this last 10 months, because the only upside of having to stay in my apartment is at least there was no one else there. I would find that unbearable, I mean, truly unbearable. … At the very beginning [of the pandemic], this guy I know, this friend of mine sent me, like, one million dollars worth of orchids saying, “These are to keep you company.” And I thought, really? I mean, thank you. They’re beautiful, but I keep myself company. So I don’t feel that living alone is a drawback during this. I think it’s an asset. …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Truthfully, I really never get lonely. I mean, I certainly can say that there are people that I miss, specific people that I’ve missed in my life numerous times, some very grievously. But a kind of abstract loneliness? No.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On being comfortable as herself and not being envious of others \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m always surprised that people, adults, look to other people—even for things like haircuts. I just never thought about it. I don’t know why. But that was true even when I was a little kid. I don’t have a habit of comparing myself to other people. … The few times in my life I felt deeply envious, the feeling was so repellent to me that I thought, “God, this must be what it’s like to be these people who are constantly envious of other people.” … It’s less surprising that, say, teenagers feel that way. But I know a lot of adults who feel that way, and I think it is just ridiculous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On being a lifelong germaphobe \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve always been very careful about touching things. … I’ve never touched a single thing in the New York City subway system—ever. Usually I’m by myself on the subway, but a few times I remember … [I was] with someone, and he said to me, when we got out, he said, “You didn’t touch anything.” And I said, “No.” And the truth is, if I dropped the Hope Diamond on the floor of a subway car, I’d leave it there. I’d say, “Well, you know, it’s just the Hope Diamond.” \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I’ve, of course, seen people pick things up from the floor. I, at least once, was sitting across from a woman with a baby, and the pacifier fell out of the baby’s mouth. The woman picked it up, wiped it off on her shirt and put it back in the baby’s mouth. I really thought one of two things going to happen to that baby: Either he’s going to drop dead right now or he’ll live to be a million years old, because he’s just been exposed to every germ and virus on the planet Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On getting elected class president of her all-girls school and then shortly thereafter being expelled \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, the difference is that the kids elected to be president and the headmaster threw me out. … The official reason he threw me out was he said, “I was a terrible influence on the other girls and I was usurping his power.” Whatever that meant, I have no idea. …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I always felt that I was punished for things unfairly. In other words, when I got thrown out of school for years afterward, people say, what did you do? And I know I was expected to say, “I started a revolution.” “I set fire to the gym.” But I really didn’t do anything. And I really think that what I got expelled for was what my mother used to call “that look on your face.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On driving a taxi cab in New York in her early 20s in the ’70s \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I drove a taxi because I don’t have any skills. I didn’t know how to do anything else. … I also didn’t want to do the job that most of my friends did, which was wait tables, because I didn’t want to have to be nice to men to get tips or to sleep with the manager of my shift, which was a common requirement then for being a waitress in New York. So I didn’t want to have a boss, which you don’t in either one of those jobs. Cab driving as a profession was completely different than it is now, because there were these garages with big fleets. Someone would own, like, 40 cabs or maybe more. So you could pick up a cab any shift, you could always make money so that if you woke up in your apartment with no money—a frequent occurrence in my life—I could go pick up a cab. At the end of eight hours, I had money. So that to me was a great thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On working for Andy Warhol’s \u003c/strong>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Interview \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>magazine and not getting along with Warhol \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I would say that Andy didn’t like me and that I did not like Andy. I noticed right away how many people around him died. … There was a tremendous amount of encouragement of people already teetering on the brink of sanity. … And Andy would feed these fantasies they had of themselves, because it amused him and it was also lucrative for him. And I just didn’t want to be really around that. I think that Andy realized that, or maybe I just wasn’t his cup of tea, but I didn’t have arguments with Andy, because I never had much conversation with Andy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>On her longtime friendship with Toni Morrison \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So if you didn’t know Toni personally, you would not know how much fun Toni was. Toni was really fun. … Most of the time we were laughing. She was really fun. In fact, when I first knew Toni, she was still working at Random House as an editor, and … at that point, my publisher, and my editor called me and said … “[The President of Random House called] me and you have to stop hanging around in Toni Morrison’s office because [the president] was complaining because you’re hanging around in there and the two of you are laughing all the time and she’s not getting her work done.” …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I even once, not that long ago, met a man who taught at Princeton and Toni taught at Princeton much after this, and he said, “I used to have the office next to Toni Morrison. And you and Toni Morrison really annoyed me with all your laughing.” So apparently, the fact that we are laughing is what really annoys people. Of course, men always don’t like to hear women laughing together, because they think you’re laughing about them. But I would say that’s probably the thing we had in common was liking to laugh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "As 'Mr. Mayor,' Ted Danson Sustains His Stellar Sitcom Streak",
"headTitle": "As ‘Mr. Mayor,’ Ted Danson Sustains His Stellar Sitcom Streak | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2011/04/13/135247195/tina-fey-reveals-all-and-then-some-in-bossypants\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tina Fey\u003c/a> and Robert Carlock, the creators of NBC’s new sitcom \u003cem>Mr. Mayor\u003c/em>, were deep into the run of their hit \u003cem>30 Rock \u003c/em>when they came up with a promising idea for a spinoff. How about taking Jack Donaghy, the corporate executive played by \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/04/05/522712736/alec-baldwin-on-career-highs-and-lows-and-playing-a-larger-than-life-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alec Baldwin\u003c/a>, and have him run for mayor—and win?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That didn’t happen, and Baldwin ended up playing a much more powerful politician, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/12/514800509/melissa-mccarthys-spicey-and-alec-baldwins-trump-return-to-snl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">repeatedly and hilariously\u003c/a>, on Tina Fey’s old stomping grounds, \u003cem>Saturday Night Live. \u003c/em>[aside postid='pop_96840']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that comic concept—of a celebrity mayor surrounded, and often defended by, an eager, yet weary, staff—was too good to let go. After all, it worked for years on ABC’s \u003cem>Spin City, \u003c/em>with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/12/21/947962393/michael-j-fox-reflects-on-life-with-parkinsons-in-no-time-like-the-future\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael J. Fox \u003c/a>playing the political assistant of a clueless mayor. And Mayor Jack Donaghy wouldn’t have been clueless—just arrogant and very, very vocal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with Donaghy out, Fey and Carlock dumped the spinoff idea and reshaped it into \u003cem>Mr. Mayor.\u003c/em> Where \u003cem>30 Rock\u003c/em> was set in and perfectly captured New York, the new sitcom is set in Los Angeles—and Neil Bremer, the newly elected mayor, isn’t a corporate executive, or even a TV celebrity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Iq7pZDK4cE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, Bremer is a retired millionaire who made his fortune plastering billboards all along Southern California’s streets and highways. He’s not clueless or arrogant, but he does come to the job without credentials or experience. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112884242\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ted Danson\u003c/a>, the actor who plays Bremer, is the exact opposite—with so many credentials, and so much experience at starring in TV sitcoms, that it’s almost ridiculous. [aside postid='pop_105436']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NBC’s launch of \u003cem>Mr. Mayor \u003c/em>extends Danson’s astounding streak of starring in sitcoms to five consecutive decades. In the 1980s, he had an 11-year run starring as Sam Malone on NBC’s \u003cem>Cheers\u003c/em>. In the ’90s, he was still starring in \u003cem>Cheers\u003c/em>, then began a six-season run as the star of \u003cem>Becker \u003c/em>on CBS. In the 2000s, he finished up \u003cem>Becker\u003c/em> and started playing an exaggerated version of himself as a recurring character on \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2015/03/05/390948906/larry-davids-first-time-on-broadway-its-not-so-easy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Larry David\u003c/a>‘s HBO series, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/09/29/554262873/curb-your-enthusiasm-returns-and-larry-david-is-back-to-playing-himself\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Curb Your Enthusiasm\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em> He’s still doing that. And in the decade that just ended, Danson also starred for four years on another brilliant sitcom, NBC’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/01/31/801540105/a-goodbye-to-the-good-place\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>The Good Place\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. And now, \u003cem>Mr. Mayor.\u003c/em> I’m in awe of that run—not only for its quantity and longevity, but also for its quality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003cem>Mr. Mayor, \u003c/em>Danson takes the spotlight and shines once again, playing a character who’s clearly delighted by the job he ran for, and won, on a whim. Mayor Bremer’s relationship with his 15-year-old daughter Orly, played by Kyla Kenedy, gives the show as much comic potential as the political workplace. Especially since Danson, as a father frustrated by his inability to connect with his teen daughter, takes the script and sticks every landing on every line—even the absurdly inappropriate toss-aways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Mr. Mayor \u003c/em>has other secret weapons, too, including Holly Hunter, who begins the series as the mayor’s most vocal adversary. She’s wonderful. So is former \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> player \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2014/01/26/265698086/for-snl-cast-member-the-waiting-was-the-hardest-part\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bobby Moynihan \u003c/a>as one of the mayor’s political aides—and, basically, so is this entire show. NBC is premiering two episodes of \u003cem>Mr. Mayor \u003c/em>on Thursday, the night once reserved for such great, must-see TV sitcoms as \u003cem>Cheers\u003c/em>, which began its run there almost 40 years ago. To start 2021 on a very good note, NBC has done it again. And so has Ted Danson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 Fresh Air. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fresh Air\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=As+%27Mr.+Mayor%2C%27+Ted+Danson+Sustains+His+Stellar+Sitcom+Streak&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2011/04/13/135247195/tina-fey-reveals-all-and-then-some-in-bossypants\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tina Fey\u003c/a> and Robert Carlock, the creators of NBC’s new sitcom \u003cem>Mr. Mayor\u003c/em>, were deep into the run of their hit \u003cem>30 Rock \u003c/em>when they came up with a promising idea for a spinoff. How about taking Jack Donaghy, the corporate executive played by \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/04/05/522712736/alec-baldwin-on-career-highs-and-lows-and-playing-a-larger-than-life-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alec Baldwin\u003c/a>, and have him run for mayor—and win?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That didn’t happen, and Baldwin ended up playing a much more powerful politician, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/12/514800509/melissa-mccarthys-spicey-and-alec-baldwins-trump-return-to-snl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">repeatedly and hilariously\u003c/a>, on Tina Fey’s old stomping grounds, \u003cem>Saturday Night Live. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that comic concept—of a celebrity mayor surrounded, and often defended by, an eager, yet weary, staff—was too good to let go. After all, it worked for years on ABC’s \u003cem>Spin City, \u003c/em>with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/12/21/947962393/michael-j-fox-reflects-on-life-with-parkinsons-in-no-time-like-the-future\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael J. Fox \u003c/a>playing the political assistant of a clueless mayor. And Mayor Jack Donaghy wouldn’t have been clueless—just arrogant and very, very vocal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with Donaghy out, Fey and Carlock dumped the spinoff idea and reshaped it into \u003cem>Mr. Mayor.\u003c/em> Where \u003cem>30 Rock\u003c/em> was set in and perfectly captured New York, the new sitcom is set in Los Angeles—and Neil Bremer, the newly elected mayor, isn’t a corporate executive, or even a TV celebrity.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/4Iq7pZDK4cE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/4Iq7pZDK4cE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, Bremer is a retired millionaire who made his fortune plastering billboards all along Southern California’s streets and highways. He’s not clueless or arrogant, but he does come to the job without credentials or experience. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112884242\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ted Danson\u003c/a>, the actor who plays Bremer, is the exact opposite—with so many credentials, and so much experience at starring in TV sitcoms, that it’s almost ridiculous. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NBC’s launch of \u003cem>Mr. Mayor \u003c/em>extends Danson’s astounding streak of starring in sitcoms to five consecutive decades. In the 1980s, he had an 11-year run starring as Sam Malone on NBC’s \u003cem>Cheers\u003c/em>. In the ’90s, he was still starring in \u003cem>Cheers\u003c/em>, then began a six-season run as the star of \u003cem>Becker \u003c/em>on CBS. In the 2000s, he finished up \u003cem>Becker\u003c/em> and started playing an exaggerated version of himself as a recurring character on \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2015/03/05/390948906/larry-davids-first-time-on-broadway-its-not-so-easy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Larry David\u003c/a>‘s HBO series, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/09/29/554262873/curb-your-enthusiasm-returns-and-larry-david-is-back-to-playing-himself\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Curb Your Enthusiasm\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em> He’s still doing that. And in the decade that just ended, Danson also starred for four years on another brilliant sitcom, NBC’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/01/31/801540105/a-goodbye-to-the-good-place\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>The Good Place\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. And now, \u003cem>Mr. Mayor.\u003c/em> I’m in awe of that run—not only for its quantity and longevity, but also for its quality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003cem>Mr. Mayor, \u003c/em>Danson takes the spotlight and shines once again, playing a character who’s clearly delighted by the job he ran for, and won, on a whim. Mayor Bremer’s relationship with his 15-year-old daughter Orly, played by Kyla Kenedy, gives the show as much comic potential as the political workplace. Especially since Danson, as a father frustrated by his inability to connect with his teen daughter, takes the script and sticks every landing on every line—even the absurdly inappropriate toss-aways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Mr. Mayor \u003c/em>has other secret weapons, too, including Holly Hunter, who begins the series as the mayor’s most vocal adversary. She’s wonderful. So is former \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> player \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2014/01/26/265698086/for-snl-cast-member-the-waiting-was-the-hardest-part\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bobby Moynihan \u003c/a>as one of the mayor’s political aides—and, basically, so is this entire show. NBC is premiering two episodes of \u003cem>Mr. Mayor \u003c/em>on Thursday, the night once reserved for such great, must-see TV sitcoms as \u003cem>Cheers\u003c/em>, which began its run there almost 40 years ago. To start 2021 on a very good note, NBC has done it again. And so has Ted Danson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 Fresh Air. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fresh Air\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=As+%27Mr.+Mayor%2C%27+Ted+Danson+Sustains+His+Stellar+Sitcom+Streak&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Holiday Rom-Coms Go Beyond Diversity to Center New Christmas Stars",
"headTitle": "Holiday Rom-Coms Go Beyond Diversity to Center New Christmas Stars | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Christmas romantic comedies are known for cozy sweaters, roaring fireplaces, meaningful glances over cups of hot chocolate and stars who, until recently, looked like a bunch of models from a Land’s End catalog circa 1985.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rare were the Christmas rom-coms with Asian, queer, Latinx or disabled characters. When Black characters started to show up, they generally played sidekicks—or they starred in family holiday movies, not the kind of Christmas rom-coms where Mom’s always there to help with a thorny relationship dilemma, the cider is forever mulled and not a single problem can’t be solved by declaring love under the mistletoe. [aside postid='arts_13889581']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2020, of all the years, might be the one where all this decisively changed. It’s been happening for a while, but holiday rom-coms this year are centering like never before on characters who only slowly started appearing in these movies, at first in the margins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People see themselves in our programming and feel welcome here,” explains Amy Winter, head of programming for Lifetime and Lifetime Movie Network. “We have over 20 diverse leads and over 80 diverse characters in the course of this premiere season. So, we’re doing pretty well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13890720\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13890720\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/3633821-f27bb1ad1e7c1828095e58dfacffee765dfa6cb2-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Rochelle Aytes and Mark Taylor star in one of the Hallmark Channel's many new holiday rom-coms, 'A Christmas Tree Grows in Colorado.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rochelle Aytes and Mark Taylor star in one of the Hallmark Channel’s many new holiday rom-coms, ‘A Christmas Tree Grows in Colorado.’ \u003ccite>(Ryan Plummer/2020 Crown Media)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It should be said there’s a full-on Christmas rom-com arms race between Lifetime and the Hallmark Channel. This year, Lifetime premiered 34 original Christmas movies to Hallmark’s 40. (Last year, Lifetime gave us 19, Hallmark, 16.) Perhaps when there are so darn many Christmas movies, it’s easier to feature leads who are Asian American (\u003cem>A Sugar & Spice Holiday\u003c/em>), gay men (\u003cem>The Christmas Set-up\u003c/em> and \u003cem>The Christmas House\u003c/em>) and wheelchair users (\u003cem>Christmas Ever After\u003c/em>), as well as Latinx (\u003cem>Feliz NaviDAD\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Jingle Bell Bride\u003c/em>) and Black (too many this year to name!)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Diversity among ‘people of color’ has been a priority for us for many years,” Allison Bennett told NPR in an email. She’s Crown Media’s vice president of corporate communications, which owns the Hallmark Channel. Both Hallmark and Lifetime have now established successful Christmas rom-com franchises with mostly Black casts: \u003cem>Christmas in Evergreen\u003c/em> and the \u003cem>Merry Liddle Christmas\u003c/em> series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just put them in my veins. I’ll watch them back to back,” jokes Brittany Luse. Cultural critic and host of \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://gimletmedia.com/shows/the-nod\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Nod\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, Luse is also an unabashed Christmas rom-com fan who’s followed Black representation in these movies at least, she says, since \u003cem>The Preacher’s Wife\u003c/em> came out in 1996, starring Denzel Washington (“couldn’t have been hotter”) and Whitney Houston (“at her most devastatingly beautiful.”) But she points out that movie denied its main characters the kind of happy ending rom-com lovers expect. [aside postid='arts_13889735']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, Luse says, these saccharine, cinematic bon-bons have become increasingly embraced in the mainstream. And while cheesy, they pack a cultural punch. Which may be partly why you see famous names like Kelly Rowland or Kristen Stewart showing up in the \u003cem>Merry Liddle\u003c/em> movies and \u003cem>Happiest Season—\u003c/em>the lesbian rom-com that happened to be Hulu’s biggest holiday hit this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13890719\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13890719\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/sugar-and-spice-2-bb6e58350f5196737f41ab5d9009fb01830a17de-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"'A Sugar & Spice Holiday,' starring Jacky Lai and Tony Giroux, is Lifetime's first Chinese American Christmas romantic comedy.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘A Sugar & Spice Holiday,’ starring Jacky Lai and Tony Giroux, is Lifetime’s first Chinese American Christmas romantic comedy. \u003ccite>(Kailey Schwerman/Courtesy of Lifetime 2020)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re seeing that kind of progress and growth happening socioculturally among all kinds of marginalized people in so many areas of pop culture,” Luse observes. “But all of this is happening in a year when so many have evoked Breonna Taylor’s name, and things are—not good for so many marginalized people. As much as I enjoy these films, I can’t help but think we’re getting the most diverse slate of Christmas romantic comedies\u003cem> that the world has ever seen, \u003c/em>but people who are living the reality of those identities on a daily basis are having a really hard time right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Escapism is deeply human. While crying over silly peccadilloes in romantic comedies won’t save the world, it won’t hurt it either. During this horrible year, Luse admits to finding relief in such Christmas movies as \u003cem>The Princess Switch 2\u003c/em> on Netflix and \u003cem>The Christmas Aunt\u003c/em> on Lifetime, starring Keshia Knight Pulliam—who a generation of fans remember as little Rudy from \u003cem>The Cosby Show—\u003c/em>as a grown-up art curator falling in love with her handsome high school crush. (Luse: “Was Lifetime stalking me? Like, did they read my emails?”) [aside postid='arts_13889748']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lifetime’s Amy Winter says the network makes a point of not just sticking diverse actors in Christmas rom-coms without also hiring writers, directors and decision-makers who share their cultural perspectives. That said, there was one exception this year. \u003cem>Christmas Ever After \u003c/em>stars an actress in a wheelchair. It was written for an able-bodied lead, but Ali Stroker—\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozcsGH5eyuU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">who’d just made history by winning a Tony for \u003cem>Oklahoma!\u003c/em>\u003c/a>—was beautiful, talented, charismatic and available. So, of course Lifetime hired her to play a romance novelist who finds love in a charming B&B in one of their 34 Christmas romcoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t make a movie about a woman in a wheelchair at Christmas,” Winter says. “We made a Christmas movie that stars a woman in a wheelchair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don’t call this Christmas casting magic, she adds. This is Christmas common sense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Holiday+Rom-Coms+Go+Beyond+Diversity+To+Center+New+Christmas+Stars&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Christmas romantic comedies are known for cozy sweaters, roaring fireplaces, meaningful glances over cups of hot chocolate and stars who, until recently, looked like a bunch of models from a Land’s End catalog circa 1985.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rare were the Christmas rom-coms with Asian, queer, Latinx or disabled characters. When Black characters started to show up, they generally played sidekicks—or they starred in family holiday movies, not the kind of Christmas rom-coms where Mom’s always there to help with a thorny relationship dilemma, the cider is forever mulled and not a single problem can’t be solved by declaring love under the mistletoe. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2020, of all the years, might be the one where all this decisively changed. It’s been happening for a while, but holiday rom-coms this year are centering like never before on characters who only slowly started appearing in these movies, at first in the margins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People see themselves in our programming and feel welcome here,” explains Amy Winter, head of programming for Lifetime and Lifetime Movie Network. “We have over 20 diverse leads and over 80 diverse characters in the course of this premiere season. So, we’re doing pretty well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13890720\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13890720\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/3633821-f27bb1ad1e7c1828095e58dfacffee765dfa6cb2-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Rochelle Aytes and Mark Taylor star in one of the Hallmark Channel's many new holiday rom-coms, 'A Christmas Tree Grows in Colorado.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rochelle Aytes and Mark Taylor star in one of the Hallmark Channel’s many new holiday rom-coms, ‘A Christmas Tree Grows in Colorado.’ \u003ccite>(Ryan Plummer/2020 Crown Media)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It should be said there’s a full-on Christmas rom-com arms race between Lifetime and the Hallmark Channel. This year, Lifetime premiered 34 original Christmas movies to Hallmark’s 40. (Last year, Lifetime gave us 19, Hallmark, 16.) Perhaps when there are so darn many Christmas movies, it’s easier to feature leads who are Asian American (\u003cem>A Sugar & Spice Holiday\u003c/em>), gay men (\u003cem>The Christmas Set-up\u003c/em> and \u003cem>The Christmas House\u003c/em>) and wheelchair users (\u003cem>Christmas Ever After\u003c/em>), as well as Latinx (\u003cem>Feliz NaviDAD\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Jingle Bell Bride\u003c/em>) and Black (too many this year to name!)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Diversity among ‘people of color’ has been a priority for us for many years,” Allison Bennett told NPR in an email. She’s Crown Media’s vice president of corporate communications, which owns the Hallmark Channel. Both Hallmark and Lifetime have now established successful Christmas rom-com franchises with mostly Black casts: \u003cem>Christmas in Evergreen\u003c/em> and the \u003cem>Merry Liddle Christmas\u003c/em> series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just put them in my veins. I’ll watch them back to back,” jokes Brittany Luse. Cultural critic and host of \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://gimletmedia.com/shows/the-nod\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Nod\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, Luse is also an unabashed Christmas rom-com fan who’s followed Black representation in these movies at least, she says, since \u003cem>The Preacher’s Wife\u003c/em> came out in 1996, starring Denzel Washington (“couldn’t have been hotter”) and Whitney Houston (“at her most devastatingly beautiful.”) But she points out that movie denied its main characters the kind of happy ending rom-com lovers expect. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, Luse says, these saccharine, cinematic bon-bons have become increasingly embraced in the mainstream. And while cheesy, they pack a cultural punch. Which may be partly why you see famous names like Kelly Rowland or Kristen Stewart showing up in the \u003cem>Merry Liddle\u003c/em> movies and \u003cem>Happiest Season—\u003c/em>the lesbian rom-com that happened to be Hulu’s biggest holiday hit this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13890719\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13890719\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/sugar-and-spice-2-bb6e58350f5196737f41ab5d9009fb01830a17de-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"'A Sugar & Spice Holiday,' starring Jacky Lai and Tony Giroux, is Lifetime's first Chinese American Christmas romantic comedy.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘A Sugar & Spice Holiday,’ starring Jacky Lai and Tony Giroux, is Lifetime’s first Chinese American Christmas romantic comedy. \u003ccite>(Kailey Schwerman/Courtesy of Lifetime 2020)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re seeing that kind of progress and growth happening socioculturally among all kinds of marginalized people in so many areas of pop culture,” Luse observes. “But all of this is happening in a year when so many have evoked Breonna Taylor’s name, and things are—not good for so many marginalized people. As much as I enjoy these films, I can’t help but think we’re getting the most diverse slate of Christmas romantic comedies\u003cem> that the world has ever seen, \u003c/em>but people who are living the reality of those identities on a daily basis are having a really hard time right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Escapism is deeply human. While crying over silly peccadilloes in romantic comedies won’t save the world, it won’t hurt it either. During this horrible year, Luse admits to finding relief in such Christmas movies as \u003cem>The Princess Switch 2\u003c/em> on Netflix and \u003cem>The Christmas Aunt\u003c/em> on Lifetime, starring Keshia Knight Pulliam—who a generation of fans remember as little Rudy from \u003cem>The Cosby Show—\u003c/em>as a grown-up art curator falling in love with her handsome high school crush. (Luse: “Was Lifetime stalking me? Like, did they read my emails?”) \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lifetime’s Amy Winter says the network makes a point of not just sticking diverse actors in Christmas rom-coms without also hiring writers, directors and decision-makers who share their cultural perspectives. That said, there was one exception this year. \u003cem>Christmas Ever After \u003c/em>stars an actress in a wheelchair. It was written for an able-bodied lead, but Ali Stroker—\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozcsGH5eyuU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">who’d just made history by winning a Tony for \u003cem>Oklahoma!\u003c/em>\u003c/a>—was beautiful, talented, charismatic and available. So, of course Lifetime hired her to play a romance novelist who finds love in a charming B&B in one of their 34 Christmas romcoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t make a movie about a woman in a wheelchair at Christmas,” Winter says. “We made a Christmas movie that stars a woman in a wheelchair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don’t call this Christmas casting magic, she adds. This is Christmas common sense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Holiday+Rom-Coms+Go+Beyond+Diversity+To+Center+New+Christmas+Stars&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' Shines a Light on August Wilson's Vision",
"headTitle": "‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ Shines a Light on August Wilson’s Vision | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom\u003c/em> was August Wilson’s first Broadway hit—and a preamble to his cycle of award-winning plays about the African-American experience across the 20th Century that included \u003cem>Fences\u003c/em> and \u003cem>The Piano Lesson\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now \u003cem>Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom\u003c/em> is the first of the late playwright’s works to be adapted for Netflix\u003cem>—\u003c/em>premiering Dec. 18.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ord7gP151vk\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.centertheatregroup.org/programs/students/learn-about-theatre/august-wilson-monologue-competition/august-wilson-biography/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wilson\u003c/a> was a little-known poet when the play opened at Yale Repertory Theater in the \u003ca href=\"https://yalerep.org/productions/ma-raineys-black-bottom-8/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">spring of 1984\u003c/a>. Sitting in the theater, Wilson told me the story came to him one day when he was listening to a recording of Ma Rainey singing the title song.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt privileged to be listening to her sing,” Wilson recalls. “I thought, ‘How did this record get recorded?’ And ‘What was the price that was paid?’ I know those things are paid for in blood, sweat and tears.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom\u003c/em> takes place in a Chicago studio on the day in 1927 when the song was recorded. The Netflix adaptation preserves Wilson’s dialogue, with added musical numbers bookending the script.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the surface, the story is about the economic exploitation of the early black performers. Rainey was called “The Mother of the Blues.” But Wilson didn’t write a biography. He said he avoided doing research—and he created fictional musicians for her band—so that he could deal with larger issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>George C. Wolfe directed the film and says all of the characters have come to Chicago from the South. “In the South, Black people could create, and nurture, and support themselves and their own communities,” Wolfe says. “When they came North, if they wanted to achieve anything, they had to come into contact with the White power structure. And by virtue of coming into contact with the White power structure, their power was in essence nullified.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13890666\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13890666\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mrbb_unit_09839_r_custom-c6a835c81318f84994fa7913fb82b2d8b9320bb5.jpg\" alt=\"Viola Davis as Ma Rainey in the film adaptation of 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.'\" width=\"200\" height=\"218\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mrbb_unit_09839_r_custom-c6a835c81318f84994fa7913fb82b2d8b9320bb5.jpg 200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mrbb_unit_09839_r_custom-c6a835c81318f84994fa7913fb82b2d8b9320bb5-160x174.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Viola Davis as Ma Rainey in the film adaptation of ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.’ \u003ccite>(David Lee/ Netflix)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ma Rainey is the title character, played in the film by Viola Davis, but the central drama belongs to a sideman in her band, the ambitious young cornetist, Levee, played by Chadwick Boseman in his final performance before he died of cancer this past summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the end of the story, Levee is lied to, cheated, and broken. He says God has turned his back on him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was talking with someone today,” Wilson said in 1984, “and [what’s] very strange is that if God is white, as Christ is often portrayed—and people actually believe that—and you look around in your life, you have white men oppressing you. Everywhere you look. Every contact you have with white men is a negative contact, then I don’t see how you can worship a God made in that image.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wilson grew up poor in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. His father was a white baker who was mostly absent from his family of six kids. So Wilson identified with his African-American mother and he drew on his experiences for all of his plays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I do is I go inside myself,” Wilson said. “There’s a landscape there. Sometimes there’s a terrifying landscape. And I start walking there. My baggage is the small imperial truths which I have accumulated from my life experience. You never know what you’re going to confront. But if you’re writing seriously out of the core of yourself, then very oftimes you confront things which are frightening. And you wrassle with them and deal with them and hopefully after you have walked through that landscape you’ve come out with something that—a larger something, be it truth or not. That is both illuminating even as it’s blinding. And then you say you’ve got a play.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it’s the character of Levee who carries that story in \u003cem>Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom\u003c/em>, says Wolfe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13890667\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13890667\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mrbb_unit_14123_r_custom-433cbdccdeb557d64052ea8e30eff25b95aca07d.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Potts as Slow Drag, Glynn Turman as Toldeo, Colman Domingo as Cutler, and Chadwick Boseman as Levee.\" width=\"200\" height=\"133\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mrbb_unit_14123_r_custom-433cbdccdeb557d64052ea8e30eff25b95aca07d.jpg 200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mrbb_unit_14123_r_custom-433cbdccdeb557d64052ea8e30eff25b95aca07d-160x106.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">L-R: Michael Potts as Slow Drag, Glynn Turman as Toldeo, Colman Domingo as Cutler, and Chadwick Boseman as Levee. \u003ccite>(David Lee/ Netflix)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Levee is this bright, promising future—but [are] the pain and the scars and the sins of the past going to keep Levee from realizing all the bright promising future that he has before him?” Wolfe asks. “And that’s America. Is America ever going to deliver on its possibility when it is forever haunted by its un-owned sins of the past?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wolfe expects the film to strike a chord with today’s audiences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be lovely one day if it was a lovely piece of nostalgia about the difficult, complicated racial equation of 1927. But that’s not going to happen for a while,” says Wolfe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the half century between when the play is set and its 1984 premiere, Wilson said the move towards racial equality had stalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not certain we’re making progress. I don’t believe that we can make progress in America until Blacks are allowed their cultural differences,” Wilson said. “I don’t see how we can make progress until white America recognizes and accepts the fact that Black Americans are not the same as white Americans.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>August Wilson died in 2005. \u003cem>Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom\u003c/em> is the first in a planned series of Wilson’s plays to be adapted for Netflix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27Ma+Rainey%27s+Black+Bottom%27+Shines+A+Light+On+August+Wilson%27s+Vision&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom\u003c/em> was August Wilson’s first Broadway hit—and a preamble to his cycle of award-winning plays about the African-American experience across the 20th Century that included \u003cem>Fences\u003c/em> and \u003cem>The Piano Lesson\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now \u003cem>Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom\u003c/em> is the first of the late playwright’s works to be adapted for Netflix\u003cem>—\u003c/em>premiering Dec. 18.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/ord7gP151vk'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/ord7gP151vk'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.centertheatregroup.org/programs/students/learn-about-theatre/august-wilson-monologue-competition/august-wilson-biography/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wilson\u003c/a> was a little-known poet when the play opened at Yale Repertory Theater in the \u003ca href=\"https://yalerep.org/productions/ma-raineys-black-bottom-8/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">spring of 1984\u003c/a>. Sitting in the theater, Wilson told me the story came to him one day when he was listening to a recording of Ma Rainey singing the title song.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt privileged to be listening to her sing,” Wilson recalls. “I thought, ‘How did this record get recorded?’ And ‘What was the price that was paid?’ I know those things are paid for in blood, sweat and tears.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom\u003c/em> takes place in a Chicago studio on the day in 1927 when the song was recorded. The Netflix adaptation preserves Wilson’s dialogue, with added musical numbers bookending the script.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the surface, the story is about the economic exploitation of the early black performers. Rainey was called “The Mother of the Blues.” But Wilson didn’t write a biography. He said he avoided doing research—and he created fictional musicians for her band—so that he could deal with larger issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>George C. Wolfe directed the film and says all of the characters have come to Chicago from the South. “In the South, Black people could create, and nurture, and support themselves and their own communities,” Wolfe says. “When they came North, if they wanted to achieve anything, they had to come into contact with the White power structure. And by virtue of coming into contact with the White power structure, their power was in essence nullified.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13890666\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13890666\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mrbb_unit_09839_r_custom-c6a835c81318f84994fa7913fb82b2d8b9320bb5.jpg\" alt=\"Viola Davis as Ma Rainey in the film adaptation of 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.'\" width=\"200\" height=\"218\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mrbb_unit_09839_r_custom-c6a835c81318f84994fa7913fb82b2d8b9320bb5.jpg 200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mrbb_unit_09839_r_custom-c6a835c81318f84994fa7913fb82b2d8b9320bb5-160x174.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Viola Davis as Ma Rainey in the film adaptation of ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.’ \u003ccite>(David Lee/ Netflix)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ma Rainey is the title character, played in the film by Viola Davis, but the central drama belongs to a sideman in her band, the ambitious young cornetist, Levee, played by Chadwick Boseman in his final performance before he died of cancer this past summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the end of the story, Levee is lied to, cheated, and broken. He says God has turned his back on him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was talking with someone today,” Wilson said in 1984, “and [what’s] very strange is that if God is white, as Christ is often portrayed—and people actually believe that—and you look around in your life, you have white men oppressing you. Everywhere you look. Every contact you have with white men is a negative contact, then I don’t see how you can worship a God made in that image.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wilson grew up poor in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. His father was a white baker who was mostly absent from his family of six kids. So Wilson identified with his African-American mother and he drew on his experiences for all of his plays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I do is I go inside myself,” Wilson said. “There’s a landscape there. Sometimes there’s a terrifying landscape. And I start walking there. My baggage is the small imperial truths which I have accumulated from my life experience. You never know what you’re going to confront. But if you’re writing seriously out of the core of yourself, then very oftimes you confront things which are frightening. And you wrassle with them and deal with them and hopefully after you have walked through that landscape you’ve come out with something that—a larger something, be it truth or not. That is both illuminating even as it’s blinding. And then you say you’ve got a play.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it’s the character of Levee who carries that story in \u003cem>Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom\u003c/em>, says Wolfe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13890667\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13890667\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mrbb_unit_14123_r_custom-433cbdccdeb557d64052ea8e30eff25b95aca07d.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Potts as Slow Drag, Glynn Turman as Toldeo, Colman Domingo as Cutler, and Chadwick Boseman as Levee.\" width=\"200\" height=\"133\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mrbb_unit_14123_r_custom-433cbdccdeb557d64052ea8e30eff25b95aca07d.jpg 200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mrbb_unit_14123_r_custom-433cbdccdeb557d64052ea8e30eff25b95aca07d-160x106.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">L-R: Michael Potts as Slow Drag, Glynn Turman as Toldeo, Colman Domingo as Cutler, and Chadwick Boseman as Levee. \u003ccite>(David Lee/ Netflix)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Levee is this bright, promising future—but [are] the pain and the scars and the sins of the past going to keep Levee from realizing all the bright promising future that he has before him?” Wolfe asks. “And that’s America. Is America ever going to deliver on its possibility when it is forever haunted by its un-owned sins of the past?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wolfe expects the film to strike a chord with today’s audiences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be lovely one day if it was a lovely piece of nostalgia about the difficult, complicated racial equation of 1927. But that’s not going to happen for a while,” says Wolfe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the half century between when the play is set and its 1984 premiere, Wilson said the move towards racial equality had stalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not certain we’re making progress. I don’t believe that we can make progress in America until Blacks are allowed their cultural differences,” Wilson said. “I don’t see how we can make progress until white America recognizes and accepts the fact that Black Americans are not the same as white Americans.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>August Wilson died in 2005. \u003cem>Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom\u003c/em> is the first in a planned series of Wilson’s plays to be adapted for Netflix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27Ma+Rainey%27s+Black+Bottom%27+Shines+A+Light+On+August+Wilson%27s+Vision&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "NPR Critics Pick Their Favorite TV From a Strange 2020",
"headTitle": "NPR Critics Pick Their Favorite TV From a Strange 2020 | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>It has been a momentous year for everything we consider TV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A pandemic, civil rights reckoning, streaming war and presidential election shook up the industry in a dozen different ways. It blurred lines between genres, platforms and story forms, while also encouraging us to develop our own, deep rabbit holes of favorite media. So when our team of four critics sat down to figure out what we liked most onscreen this year, we each had a lot of stuff on our lists no one else did. [aside postid='arts_13890197']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why our list crosses a lot of boundaries, including projects technically released as feature films. It’s a powerful example of how much quality entertainment was available this year, even after coronavirus lockdowns shut down productions and upended release schedules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In alphabetical order, here’s our best of 2020—and we know it’s a long list, so you can use these alphabetical links to skip around: \u003ca href=\"#B\">B\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#C\">C\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#D\">D\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#F\">F\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#G\">G\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#H\">H\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#I\">I\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#J\">J\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#L\">L\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#M\">M\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#N\">N\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#O\">O\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#P\">P\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#Q\">Q\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#T\">T\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#W\">W\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Better Call Saul, Season 5 \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(AMC, Amazon Prime rental, earlier seasons on Netflix)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This outstanding FX series long ago rendered pointless any comparisons to \u003cem>Breaking Bad\u003c/em>, of which it is technically a prequel. The story it’s telling is so very much its own—by turns gritty and funny, melancholic and viciously violent. In its penultimate season, the transformation of Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) into Saul Goodman—a criminal lawyer who’s actually a \u003cem>criminal\u003c/em> lawyer—is just about complete. We finally saw the series’ two disparate plot threads—Jimmy’s and Mike’s (Jonathan Banks)—come together, a richly satisfying consummation for those viewers who’ve complained about the series’ pacing, and who’ve longed for those two characters to share the screen. The fact that it’s all set against the very real, and immensely worrying, potential downfall of the show’s beating heart—Rhea Seehorn’s astonishing performance as Jimmy’s girlfriend Kim—invests us that much deeply in the show’s dangerous and duplicitous world. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon, Aisha Harris, Eric Deggans\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Black Is King\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (Disney+)/\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Between the World and Me\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (HBO and HBO Max) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a year that saw lots of reflection on systemic racism and police brutality, these two films offered emotional, effective meditations on Black joy and pain in very different ways. \u003cem>Black Is King\u003c/em> is Beyoncé’s “visual album,” loosely inspired by \u003cem>The Lion King\u003c/em> story, using arresting images and banging tunes to portray the peoples of the African diaspora rediscovering their heritage as leaders and royalty. \u003cem>Between the World and Me\u003c/em> is a different kind of tone poem, centered on passages read by performers like Oprah Winfrey from Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book, which was written as a letter to his teen son. It explores the dangers Black people face from police brutality and the joy which comes from Black love and achievement, perfectly presenting the duality of African American life. — \u003cem>Eric Deggans\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>BoJack Horseman, Season 6, Part II \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Netflix)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After five-plus seasons watching a washed-up sitcom horse wrestle with drug addiction, narcissism, childhood traumas and the traumas he inflicted upon others, BoJack Horseman’s story came to an end that was as satisfying as one could hope. What the show did best (besides insanely clever animal puns and skewering Hollywood) was really question and challenge the arc of redemption for people (or horses) who have caused an immeasurable amount of pain to others. Right up to its final moments, the writers and animators didn’t let up, remaining as inquisitive and creative as ever. — \u003cem>Aisha Harris\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Boys State\u003c/em>\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>(Apple TV+)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Set at Boys State in Texas, a program where high school boys run for office and form a mock government, this is a documentary not for the faint of heart. It shows kids whose approach to politics is already hardened, already combative beyond the substance of it. Combative for its own sake. While there are moments that show the promise of young activists and idealists, there are also dark signs that a lot of kids who have grown up in our fractured and nasty political climate have learned plenty from the politicians who have endeavored at every turn to make it worse. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Class Action Park\u003c/strong>\u003c/em> \u003cstrong>(HBO Max)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This documentary functions, at one level, as a document laying out the details of a very specific time and place: Action Park in New Jersey, famous for being the amusement park where kids got hurt. But with the help of excellent input from Class Action Park patrons and comedian Chris Gethard, it turns into a consideration of nostalgia more generally, and of what it means to know you had a great time doing something that was a very bad idea. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Da 5 Bloods \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Netflix)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spike Lee’s usage of Marvin Gaye’s \u003cem>What’s Going On?\u003c/em> album is divine; his nods and references to everything from \u003cem>The Treasure of the Sierra Madre \u003c/em>to \u003cem>Rambo \u003c/em>are thoughtful and layered; Chadwick Boseman, in one of his final roles, is a powerful and spiritual presence. But this movie belongs to Delroy Lindo, who cuts an imposing and indelible figure as Paul, a Vietnam War vet worn down by unresolved guilt, wrecked by bitterness, sadness and fear. He finds shades to play with in every feeling and thought, giving one of the great performances in recent memory. — \u003cem>Aisha Harris\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>David Byrne’s American Utopia \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(HBO and HBO Max) \u003c/strong>[aside postid='arts_13890048']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a year when we were starved for good feelings, a year when mere happiness felt like ecstatic joy, and real ecstatic joy—like that on glorious display on a Broadway stage by a barefoot David Byrne and a cadre of musicians in matching gray suits—could leave you breathless, swooning and profoundly grateful. Directed by Spike Lee, the theatrical concert film spans Byrne’s musical career but—as with any production associated with Byrne—it leaves plenty of room to get enthusiastically weird. Wireless technology allows the musicians to roam the stage, and they do so in lock-step choreography, like the hippest high school marching band imaginable. A special treat for longtime Talking Heads fans: We finally get the live version of “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)” that we didn’t know we’ve been aching for, all this time. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>First Cow \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Showtime, DIRECTTV, and numerous rental sites) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s astounding how much suspense director Kelly Reichardt is able to derive from the act of milking a cow. In early 19th-century Oregon Territory, skillful cook Otis “Cookie” Figowitz (John Magaro) befriends King-Lu, an enterprising Chinese immigrant (Orion Lee) and outlaw. Together, they conjure up a successful business at a market outpost selling oily cakes to hungry traders; the recipe requires a very scarce commodity around those parts: cow’s milk. It’s one-part heist film and another part buddy adventure, with a tender—and often humorous—friendship at its center. — \u003cem>Aisha Harris\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Flight Attendant\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (HBO Max)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Based on the novel by Chris Bohjalian, this smart, taut HBO Max thriller stars Kaley Cuoco as, well, a flight attendant who wakes up after a night of partying and realizes something very, very bad happened while she was asleep. Part mystery, part drama about the aftereffects of a traumatic childhood, and part dark comedy, it was one of the most pleasant surprises of the year, impressing with its razor-sharp tone, supporting performances (Zosia Mamet is tremendous as Cuoco’s best friend), and heartfelt work from Cuoco. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Forty-Year-Old Version \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Netflix) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Radha Blank’s debut as a feature film director, writer and star is an engaging portrait of an artist at an existential crossroad, professional and personal. This is a refreshingly specific mid-life crisis, one borrowing from Blank’s own life as a born-and-bred New York writer and rapper known as RhadaMUS Prime. It’s funny and poignant, and the banter and characters feel real and alive. Radha the character may lack confidence at times, but real-life Radha the filmmaker is very self-assured. — \u003cem>Aisha Harris, Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Good Place, Season 4 \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(NBC, Netflix, Amazon Prime) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The road to this perfectly poignant finale wasn’t smooth. Much of seasons 3 and 4 lacked the bite of the earlier seasons, and as the gang fought to prove that there was a fundamental glitch in the sorting of heaven and hell, it felt almost like Mike Schur and his team were spinning wheels. But they stuck the landing anyway, bringing back some of that subversiveness by daring to suggest there can come a point when you feel as though you’ve done all you wanted to do in (the after)life and it’s time to move on. It’s a dark thing to contemplate, but it’s also honest. — \u003cem>Aisha Harris\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Great \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Hulu)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Billed as “An Occasionally True Story,” this series about young Catherine (Elle Fanning) and her ill-fated marriage to Emperor Peter of Russia (Nicholas Hoult) is stuffed with gleefully ahistorical elements that’ll send students of Russian history into aneurysms. Fanning is terrific as an idealistic (and self-satisfied) would-be social reformer, while Hoult’s Peter is a nightmare—a sociopathic boor poured into a pair of tight leather pants. \u003cem>The Great \u003c/em>was created by Tony McNamara, based on his 2008 play. McNamara went on to co-write 2018’s \u003cem>The Favourite\u003c/em>, and if you’ve seen that film, you know what to expect here—yes, bustles and corsets, wigs and snuffboxes, but also crisp ripostes, lacerating insults and dialogue that sizzles with withering wit. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Harley Quinn\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (DC Universe and HBO Max) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the sheer tonnage of live action superhero shows on TV, it’s notable that the most gonzo, subversive, hilarious, action packed, explicit and entertaining take on the DC comics universe is actually this animated series. Originally created for the streaming service DC Universe, it now lives on HBO Max, where \u003cem>Big Bang Theory\u003c/em> alum Kaley Cuoco voices the Joker’s former girlfriend as an unpredictable, profanity-slinging romantic who resists the ex who exploited her. It’s a comedy of sorts where even Batman is a bit of a doofus, featuring Harley leading a team of misfit baddies who struggle for recognition as Gotham City’s leading villains, redefining adult-oriented superhero stories in the process. — \u003cem>Eric Deggans\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Haunting of Bly Manor \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Netflix)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first installment of this Netflix series\u003cem>, The Haunting of Hill House\u003c/em>, was packed with plenty of good, ghostly scares—but it lagged in the middle, and whiffed the ending. With \u003cem>The Haunting of Bly Manor\u003c/em> creator and showrunner Mike Flanagan hasn’t simply found a new author to riff on (Henry James, instead of Shirley Jackson) he has seriously course-corrected. Though it parcels out the scares more thinly than \u003cem>Hill House \u003c/em>did, \u003cem>Bly Manor\u003c/em>‘s story is tighter, and it nails the all-important dismount in a sincere, humane and bittersweet way that directly addresses the nature, and the purpose, of grief. It’s not overtly tidy or dully expositional—yet it feels, in the best way, inevitable. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>I Hate Suzie\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong> (HBO Max) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This British series—just eight episodes, as is their wont—stars the great Billie Piper as an actress whose nudes end up on the Internet after her phone gets hacked. She then proceeds to make a series of \u003cem>wildly\u003c/em> terrible decisions to deal with it—or \u003cem>not\u003c/em> deal with it, as the case may be. It won’t be for everyone. Think of it as the anti-\u003cem>Ted Lasso—\u003c/em>there’s little here that’s comforting or warm. Try it on for size: Watch the first episode, in which a huge crowd comes tromping through her home for a photo shoot just as she’s first finding out about the leaked nudes. She keeps trying to find some privacy—and keep her husband from finding out—in a long stretch of tense, claustrophobic, downright nightmarish scenes, many of which take place entirely in a tight close-up of Piper’s face as she attempts to keep from panicking. If it grabs you, you’ll watch the rest of the episodes through your fingers—but you will watch them, compulsively. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>I May Destroy You\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (HBO and HBO Max)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michaela Coel’s series about a woman exploring the aftermath of a sexual assault shone a spotlight on Coel’s own acting, writing, and in some cases directing. It also became a broader examination of ethics in sex and relationships, from the traumatic to the questionable to the unkind. The supporting cast and dizzying structural turns made the HBO show one of the most exciting of 2020. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes, Aisha Harris, Eric Deggans, Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Invisible Man \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(HBO, HBO Max and numerous rental sites)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elisabeth Moss stars as a woman who begins to fear she’s crazy when she keeps sensing her dead abusive husband everywhere. From there, the film becomes a consideration of paranoia, trauma and ultimately the desire to reclaim a connection to reality that’s come undone as a result of repeated, relentless gaslighting. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Netflix)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Point of order: This comedy special debuted on Dec. 25, 2019—after we made our annual list—so it slides in here on a technicality. But it certainly belongs—no comedy special has won me over so hard, so completely. Mulaney’s idiosyncratic sensibility might seem an odd fit for what is essentially an extended riff on old children’s television programming, but it works seamlessly here. That’s a product of the writing, which is wry but never cynical, but it’s also an outgrowth of the casting. These kid actors aren’t pushing it—they easily find Mulaney’s particular comedic frequency, and stick to it. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Last Dance\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (Netflix) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Basketball legend Michael Jordan looms over every frame of this revealing documentary series first shown on ESPN, and not just because it expertly documents his final championship season with the Chicago Bulls in 1997-98. It’s an incisive look at how that team became a world-crushing, pop-culture-dominating force, with special detail on how Jordan built his legend. Other stories also resonate: How Dennis Rodman nearly committed suicide before he joined the Bulls; how teammate Scottie Pippen was continually underpaid; how Jordan was merciless about pushing his teammates and cultivating grudges to boost his performance. Jordan was involved as a producer and had to approve use of the Bulls’ behind-the-scenes footage, giving him even more control. But despite his influence, this miniseries offers a never-before-seen look at a once in a generation team. — \u003cem>Eric Deggans\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Lovecraft Country\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (HBO and HBO Max) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Packed to bursting with symbolism, special effects, allegory, social messages, reinvented horror tropes and enough plot to require a YouTube explainer for every episode, this audacious take on Matt Ruff’s 2016 novel is a lot. But its story, placing a Black family at the heart of a pitched battle with a white family of witches in the Jim Crow-era 1950s, is a marvel of ambition and craft. Comparing the horrors of racism to the supernatural horrors found in novels by H.P. Lovecraft—himself an infamous xenophobe and racist—reinvents the genre in unexpected ways. And the work of executive producer/writer/director Misha Green to showcase the power of Black love and family in a series dropping during the summer’s reckoning over systemic racism and police brutality, was exquisitely perfect timing. — \u003cem>Eric Deggans, Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Lovers Rock \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Amazon Prime) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This entry in Steve McQueen’s excellent \u003cem>Small Axe \u003c/em>anthology series will surely make you want to seek out its soundtrack, which is bubbling with classics of the reggae subgenre from which it gets its title. But as you follow these young West Indian Londoners mingling, dancing, flirting and rebuffing aggressive strangers at a lively house party on one evening in 1980, it will also transport you to a realm of beauty and intimacy. It’s a musical reverie that manages to capture the exultation of the arrival of the weekend, and the sanctity of Black community. — \u003cem>Aisha Harris \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Mucho Mucho Amor\u003c/em>\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>(Netflix)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Netflix presented this documentary about legendary astrologer Walter Mercado to an audience that included both people who grew up watching him on television every day and people who knew him hardly at all. It told a story that was alternatively sad and stirring, but it ultimately gave the man his due as a legend who was part of the lives of many families and who found himself poorly treated by some of those close to him. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The New Pope \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(HBO and HBO Max) \u003c/strong>[aside postid='arts_13890093']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The New Pope\u003c/em>, like \u003cem>The Young Pope\u003c/em> before it, is all about jockeying for a very earthly kind of power behind the scenes of the Vatican. The vaguely odd, singular tone of that first series persists, as does the many Italian actors’ tendencies to emphasize words that native English speakers wouldn’t necessarily emphasize, and insert long, meaningful pauses (creator Paolo Sorrentino loves his pauses) where native English speakers wouldn’t. It all adds to the sense that you’re watching the show from across a vague, yet palpable cultural divide—the ecclesiastical drama as Mentos commercial. Despite the title change and the swapping out of Jude Law’s Pius XIII for John Malkovich’s Sir John Brannox, Sorrentino’s camera still tracks slowly and languidly through immense arched hallways, vaulted rooms and lush gardens, pausing to alight upon small, telling details. Malkovich revels in his portrayal of Brannox as a louche, mascara-wearing British fop who flounces through life—a man who can be counted upon to find the nearest chaise in any room and recline upon it as if he has just been roughly flung there. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Normal People\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (Hulu)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Sally Rooney novel about two young students who fall in love and watch their lives intersect over many years was a hit, and adapting it into a limited series was a challenge since it’s so reliant on the interiority of the lead characters. But leads Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal brought their scenes together an intimacy and grace that kept the wide-ranging story in focus. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>On The Record \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(HBO Max)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making a documentary about the reckoning over sexual harassment in music would have been too broad an assignment for any filmmaker. So it makes sense that this one is narrower: It is primarily about allegations against hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, and even more specifically about Drew Dixon, an A&R executive who says she saw her career founder after being assaulted by Simmons. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Ozark, Season 3\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (Netflix) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics who dismiss this drama about a family juggling internal drama and FBI scrutiny while laundering money for a Mexican drug cartel in the Ozarks (some have dubbed it “Breaking Bad: The Family Edition”) have missed the point. Especially in this year’s powerhouse third season, Ozark raised its game, adding Janet McTeer as a domineering cartel lawyer and Tom Pelphrey in a shamefully under-recognized turn as the bipolar brother of matriarch Wendy Byrde, played by Laura Linney. Pelphrey was heart-rending as the only person who saw how terrible the Byrdes’ activities were, despite his mental illness. And the show’s ability to keep viewers invested in Jason Bateman’s numbers whiz, patriarch Marty Byrde—no matter who he gets killed or rips off—is nothing short of amazing. — \u003cem>Eric Deggans\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>P-Valley \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(STARZ) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In lesser hands, Uncle Clifford (Nicco Annan)—the towering, flamboyant non-binary strip club owner whose drawl kind of sounds like Katt Williams—could have easily turned out to be little more than sassy caricature. But Katori Hall’s soapy melodrama about a rural Mississippi town and its colorful inhabitants takes its characters seriously, and over the course of this crackling first season they emerge more unique and interesting than their “types” might initially suggest. The show also brings a new level of respect to the artistry and precision of pole dancing—among the highlights are those extensive routines backed by dirty, thumping Southern hip-hop. — \u003cem>Aisha Harris\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Queen’s Gambit\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (Netflix) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before I saw one scene of chess play, I was all in for a miniseries showing a talented, self-possessed woman mastering a game dominated by men in the 1950s and ’60s, knocking them off like clay pigeons on her way to the world championship. But this series, crafted by Scott Frank based on a 1983 novel, also plays like a superhero origin story. In a magnetic performance, Anya Taylor-Joy brings liquid eyes and an inscrutable manner to chess prodigy Beth Harmon, who must overcome substance abuse, the influence of her suicidal mom and a sexist world to reach her goals. Toss in a period-specific, lavish production and direction that actually makes chess look interesting, and you have the ingredients of a modern TV masterpiece. — \u003cem>Eric Deggans\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Ted Lasso\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (Apple TV+) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> alum Jason Sudeikis is funny, bumbling and occasionally heartbreaking as Ted Lasso, a stupendously optimistic American college football coach hired to lead a Premiere League soccer team in England. The owner is actually trying to sabotage the team by hiring Lasso, who knows nothing about soccer—or “football,” as they call it in Britain. But she doesn’t realize his true superpower is that he’s so gosh darned nice. It may sound a little hokey, but \u003cem>Ted Lasso\u003c/em> somehow builds a wonderful comedy around the healing power of niceness—deflating any hokum with a well-timed joke or two. And considering how tough 2020 has been, we all could use a lot of that message right about now. — \u003cem>Eric Deggans, Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Tiger King\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (Netflix) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The subjects of this docuseries became the butt of a thousand punchlines, as viewers dug into the tawdry tale of Joe Exotic—a publicity-seeking, pistol-packing character running a private zoo in Oklahoma who was convicted of paying a hitman to murder his longtime nemesis, self-styled animal conservationist Carol Baskin. Still, the series itself is an amazing achievement, exploring the eccentric and often exploitive underworld of exotic animal collectors and conservationists. Joe Exotic was the show’s unstable center, given to stunts like running for president and participating in an unofficial, three-way same sex marriage. But the show also featured footage filmed over years, as directors caught crucial moments on film and climbed inside the heart of a devastatingly dysfunctional subculture. — \u003cem>Eric Deggans\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Time \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Amazon Prime) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a profound sadness at the core of Garrett Bradley’s arresting documentary about Fox Rich, a Louisiana woman who spent decades tirelessly contesting her husband Robert’s 60-year prison sentence for a crime they both committed out of economic desperation. But there’s also a sense of optimism humming beneath it all, particularly in how Rich’s story unfolds on screen: via footage from approximately 100 hours of daily video diaries she made of herself and their children over the years, in the hopes of eventually having the opportunity to show it all to Robert. Bradley and editor Gabriel Rhodes take this treasure of a time capsule and turn out an absorbing masterpiece. — \u003cem>Aisha Harris\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>What We Do In The Shadows, Season 2 \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(FX and FX on Hulu)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As great as the first season of this modern-day-vampire mockumentary series was, it had trouble stepping out of the long … well, \u003cem>shadow\u003c/em> of the 2014 film on which it was based. That’s not to say there weren’t plenty of creative additions—Mark Proksch’s cardigan-clad “energy vampire” Colin Robinson, for example, the embodiment of all things evil … and beige. But in the second season, a stronger, more linear plot involving the show’s secret weapon (Harvey Guillén as Guillermo, the Staten-Island-based vampires’ long-suffering thrall/assistant who discovers as dark, hilarious truth about himself) leaves the viewer with the impression that the show has clicked into its groove. And speaking of groove: If the show did nothing but grace us with the presence of the marvelous Matt Barry at his bombastic best here playing the preternaturally self-impressed vampire Lazlo, it would be enough. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=NPR+Critics+Pick+Their+Favorite+TV+From+A+Strange+2020&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It has been a momentous year for everything we consider TV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A pandemic, civil rights reckoning, streaming war and presidential election shook up the industry in a dozen different ways. It blurred lines between genres, platforms and story forms, while also encouraging us to develop our own, deep rabbit holes of favorite media. So when our team of four critics sat down to figure out what we liked most onscreen this year, we each had a lot of stuff on our lists no one else did. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why our list crosses a lot of boundaries, including projects technically released as feature films. It’s a powerful example of how much quality entertainment was available this year, even after coronavirus lockdowns shut down productions and upended release schedules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In alphabetical order, here’s our best of 2020—and we know it’s a long list, so you can use these alphabetical links to skip around: \u003ca href=\"#B\">B\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#C\">C\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#D\">D\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#F\">F\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#G\">G\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#H\">H\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#I\">I\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#J\">J\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#L\">L\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#M\">M\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#N\">N\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#O\">O\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#P\">P\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#Q\">Q\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#T\">T\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"#W\">W\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Better Call Saul, Season 5 \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(AMC, Amazon Prime rental, earlier seasons on Netflix)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This outstanding FX series long ago rendered pointless any comparisons to \u003cem>Breaking Bad\u003c/em>, of which it is technically a prequel. The story it’s telling is so very much its own—by turns gritty and funny, melancholic and viciously violent. In its penultimate season, the transformation of Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) into Saul Goodman—a criminal lawyer who’s actually a \u003cem>criminal\u003c/em> lawyer—is just about complete. We finally saw the series’ two disparate plot threads—Jimmy’s and Mike’s (Jonathan Banks)—come together, a richly satisfying consummation for those viewers who’ve complained about the series’ pacing, and who’ve longed for those two characters to share the screen. The fact that it’s all set against the very real, and immensely worrying, potential downfall of the show’s beating heart—Rhea Seehorn’s astonishing performance as Jimmy’s girlfriend Kim—invests us that much deeply in the show’s dangerous and duplicitous world. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon, Aisha Harris, Eric Deggans\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Black Is King\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (Disney+)/\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Between the World and Me\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (HBO and HBO Max) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a year that saw lots of reflection on systemic racism and police brutality, these two films offered emotional, effective meditations on Black joy and pain in very different ways. \u003cem>Black Is King\u003c/em> is Beyoncé’s “visual album,” loosely inspired by \u003cem>The Lion King\u003c/em> story, using arresting images and banging tunes to portray the peoples of the African diaspora rediscovering their heritage as leaders and royalty. \u003cem>Between the World and Me\u003c/em> is a different kind of tone poem, centered on passages read by performers like Oprah Winfrey from Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book, which was written as a letter to his teen son. It explores the dangers Black people face from police brutality and the joy which comes from Black love and achievement, perfectly presenting the duality of African American life. — \u003cem>Eric Deggans\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>BoJack Horseman, Season 6, Part II \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Netflix)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After five-plus seasons watching a washed-up sitcom horse wrestle with drug addiction, narcissism, childhood traumas and the traumas he inflicted upon others, BoJack Horseman’s story came to an end that was as satisfying as one could hope. What the show did best (besides insanely clever animal puns and skewering Hollywood) was really question and challenge the arc of redemption for people (or horses) who have caused an immeasurable amount of pain to others. Right up to its final moments, the writers and animators didn’t let up, remaining as inquisitive and creative as ever. — \u003cem>Aisha Harris\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Boys State\u003c/em>\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>(Apple TV+)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Set at Boys State in Texas, a program where high school boys run for office and form a mock government, this is a documentary not for the faint of heart. It shows kids whose approach to politics is already hardened, already combative beyond the substance of it. Combative for its own sake. While there are moments that show the promise of young activists and idealists, there are also dark signs that a lot of kids who have grown up in our fractured and nasty political climate have learned plenty from the politicians who have endeavored at every turn to make it worse. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Class Action Park\u003c/strong>\u003c/em> \u003cstrong>(HBO Max)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This documentary functions, at one level, as a document laying out the details of a very specific time and place: Action Park in New Jersey, famous for being the amusement park where kids got hurt. But with the help of excellent input from Class Action Park patrons and comedian Chris Gethard, it turns into a consideration of nostalgia more generally, and of what it means to know you had a great time doing something that was a very bad idea. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Da 5 Bloods \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Netflix)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spike Lee’s usage of Marvin Gaye’s \u003cem>What’s Going On?\u003c/em> album is divine; his nods and references to everything from \u003cem>The Treasure of the Sierra Madre \u003c/em>to \u003cem>Rambo \u003c/em>are thoughtful and layered; Chadwick Boseman, in one of his final roles, is a powerful and spiritual presence. But this movie belongs to Delroy Lindo, who cuts an imposing and indelible figure as Paul, a Vietnam War vet worn down by unresolved guilt, wrecked by bitterness, sadness and fear. He finds shades to play with in every feeling and thought, giving one of the great performances in recent memory. — \u003cem>Aisha Harris\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>David Byrne’s American Utopia \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(HBO and HBO Max) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a year when we were starved for good feelings, a year when mere happiness felt like ecstatic joy, and real ecstatic joy—like that on glorious display on a Broadway stage by a barefoot David Byrne and a cadre of musicians in matching gray suits—could leave you breathless, swooning and profoundly grateful. Directed by Spike Lee, the theatrical concert film spans Byrne’s musical career but—as with any production associated with Byrne—it leaves plenty of room to get enthusiastically weird. Wireless technology allows the musicians to roam the stage, and they do so in lock-step choreography, like the hippest high school marching band imaginable. A special treat for longtime Talking Heads fans: We finally get the live version of “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)” that we didn’t know we’ve been aching for, all this time. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>First Cow \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Showtime, DIRECTTV, and numerous rental sites) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s astounding how much suspense director Kelly Reichardt is able to derive from the act of milking a cow. In early 19th-century Oregon Territory, skillful cook Otis “Cookie” Figowitz (John Magaro) befriends King-Lu, an enterprising Chinese immigrant (Orion Lee) and outlaw. Together, they conjure up a successful business at a market outpost selling oily cakes to hungry traders; the recipe requires a very scarce commodity around those parts: cow’s milk. It’s one-part heist film and another part buddy adventure, with a tender—and often humorous—friendship at its center. — \u003cem>Aisha Harris\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Flight Attendant\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (HBO Max)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Based on the novel by Chris Bohjalian, this smart, taut HBO Max thriller stars Kaley Cuoco as, well, a flight attendant who wakes up after a night of partying and realizes something very, very bad happened while she was asleep. Part mystery, part drama about the aftereffects of a traumatic childhood, and part dark comedy, it was one of the most pleasant surprises of the year, impressing with its razor-sharp tone, supporting performances (Zosia Mamet is tremendous as Cuoco’s best friend), and heartfelt work from Cuoco. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Forty-Year-Old Version \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Netflix) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Radha Blank’s debut as a feature film director, writer and star is an engaging portrait of an artist at an existential crossroad, professional and personal. This is a refreshingly specific mid-life crisis, one borrowing from Blank’s own life as a born-and-bred New York writer and rapper known as RhadaMUS Prime. It’s funny and poignant, and the banter and characters feel real and alive. Radha the character may lack confidence at times, but real-life Radha the filmmaker is very self-assured. — \u003cem>Aisha Harris, Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Good Place, Season 4 \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(NBC, Netflix, Amazon Prime) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The road to this perfectly poignant finale wasn’t smooth. Much of seasons 3 and 4 lacked the bite of the earlier seasons, and as the gang fought to prove that there was a fundamental glitch in the sorting of heaven and hell, it felt almost like Mike Schur and his team were spinning wheels. But they stuck the landing anyway, bringing back some of that subversiveness by daring to suggest there can come a point when you feel as though you’ve done all you wanted to do in (the after)life and it’s time to move on. It’s a dark thing to contemplate, but it’s also honest. — \u003cem>Aisha Harris\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Great \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Hulu)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Billed as “An Occasionally True Story,” this series about young Catherine (Elle Fanning) and her ill-fated marriage to Emperor Peter of Russia (Nicholas Hoult) is stuffed with gleefully ahistorical elements that’ll send students of Russian history into aneurysms. Fanning is terrific as an idealistic (and self-satisfied) would-be social reformer, while Hoult’s Peter is a nightmare—a sociopathic boor poured into a pair of tight leather pants. \u003cem>The Great \u003c/em>was created by Tony McNamara, based on his 2008 play. McNamara went on to co-write 2018’s \u003cem>The Favourite\u003c/em>, and if you’ve seen that film, you know what to expect here—yes, bustles and corsets, wigs and snuffboxes, but also crisp ripostes, lacerating insults and dialogue that sizzles with withering wit. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Harley Quinn\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (DC Universe and HBO Max) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the sheer tonnage of live action superhero shows on TV, it’s notable that the most gonzo, subversive, hilarious, action packed, explicit and entertaining take on the DC comics universe is actually this animated series. Originally created for the streaming service DC Universe, it now lives on HBO Max, where \u003cem>Big Bang Theory\u003c/em> alum Kaley Cuoco voices the Joker’s former girlfriend as an unpredictable, profanity-slinging romantic who resists the ex who exploited her. It’s a comedy of sorts where even Batman is a bit of a doofus, featuring Harley leading a team of misfit baddies who struggle for recognition as Gotham City’s leading villains, redefining adult-oriented superhero stories in the process. — \u003cem>Eric Deggans\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Haunting of Bly Manor \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Netflix)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first installment of this Netflix series\u003cem>, The Haunting of Hill House\u003c/em>, was packed with plenty of good, ghostly scares—but it lagged in the middle, and whiffed the ending. With \u003cem>The Haunting of Bly Manor\u003c/em> creator and showrunner Mike Flanagan hasn’t simply found a new author to riff on (Henry James, instead of Shirley Jackson) he has seriously course-corrected. Though it parcels out the scares more thinly than \u003cem>Hill House \u003c/em>did, \u003cem>Bly Manor\u003c/em>‘s story is tighter, and it nails the all-important dismount in a sincere, humane and bittersweet way that directly addresses the nature, and the purpose, of grief. It’s not overtly tidy or dully expositional—yet it feels, in the best way, inevitable. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>I Hate Suzie\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong> (HBO Max) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This British series—just eight episodes, as is their wont—stars the great Billie Piper as an actress whose nudes end up on the Internet after her phone gets hacked. She then proceeds to make a series of \u003cem>wildly\u003c/em> terrible decisions to deal with it—or \u003cem>not\u003c/em> deal with it, as the case may be. It won’t be for everyone. Think of it as the anti-\u003cem>Ted Lasso—\u003c/em>there’s little here that’s comforting or warm. Try it on for size: Watch the first episode, in which a huge crowd comes tromping through her home for a photo shoot just as she’s first finding out about the leaked nudes. She keeps trying to find some privacy—and keep her husband from finding out—in a long stretch of tense, claustrophobic, downright nightmarish scenes, many of which take place entirely in a tight close-up of Piper’s face as she attempts to keep from panicking. If it grabs you, you’ll watch the rest of the episodes through your fingers—but you will watch them, compulsively. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>I May Destroy You\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (HBO and HBO Max)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michaela Coel’s series about a woman exploring the aftermath of a sexual assault shone a spotlight on Coel’s own acting, writing, and in some cases directing. It also became a broader examination of ethics in sex and relationships, from the traumatic to the questionable to the unkind. The supporting cast and dizzying structural turns made the HBO show one of the most exciting of 2020. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes, Aisha Harris, Eric Deggans, Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Invisible Man \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(HBO, HBO Max and numerous rental sites)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elisabeth Moss stars as a woman who begins to fear she’s crazy when she keeps sensing her dead abusive husband everywhere. From there, the film becomes a consideration of paranoia, trauma and ultimately the desire to reclaim a connection to reality that’s come undone as a result of repeated, relentless gaslighting. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Netflix)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Point of order: This comedy special debuted on Dec. 25, 2019—after we made our annual list—so it slides in here on a technicality. But it certainly belongs—no comedy special has won me over so hard, so completely. Mulaney’s idiosyncratic sensibility might seem an odd fit for what is essentially an extended riff on old children’s television programming, but it works seamlessly here. That’s a product of the writing, which is wry but never cynical, but it’s also an outgrowth of the casting. These kid actors aren’t pushing it—they easily find Mulaney’s particular comedic frequency, and stick to it. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Last Dance\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (Netflix) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Basketball legend Michael Jordan looms over every frame of this revealing documentary series first shown on ESPN, and not just because it expertly documents his final championship season with the Chicago Bulls in 1997-98. It’s an incisive look at how that team became a world-crushing, pop-culture-dominating force, with special detail on how Jordan built his legend. Other stories also resonate: How Dennis Rodman nearly committed suicide before he joined the Bulls; how teammate Scottie Pippen was continually underpaid; how Jordan was merciless about pushing his teammates and cultivating grudges to boost his performance. Jordan was involved as a producer and had to approve use of the Bulls’ behind-the-scenes footage, giving him even more control. But despite his influence, this miniseries offers a never-before-seen look at a once in a generation team. — \u003cem>Eric Deggans\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Lovecraft Country\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (HBO and HBO Max) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Packed to bursting with symbolism, special effects, allegory, social messages, reinvented horror tropes and enough plot to require a YouTube explainer for every episode, this audacious take on Matt Ruff’s 2016 novel is a lot. But its story, placing a Black family at the heart of a pitched battle with a white family of witches in the Jim Crow-era 1950s, is a marvel of ambition and craft. Comparing the horrors of racism to the supernatural horrors found in novels by H.P. Lovecraft—himself an infamous xenophobe and racist—reinvents the genre in unexpected ways. And the work of executive producer/writer/director Misha Green to showcase the power of Black love and family in a series dropping during the summer’s reckoning over systemic racism and police brutality, was exquisitely perfect timing. — \u003cem>Eric Deggans, Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Lovers Rock \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Amazon Prime) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This entry in Steve McQueen’s excellent \u003cem>Small Axe \u003c/em>anthology series will surely make you want to seek out its soundtrack, which is bubbling with classics of the reggae subgenre from which it gets its title. But as you follow these young West Indian Londoners mingling, dancing, flirting and rebuffing aggressive strangers at a lively house party on one evening in 1980, it will also transport you to a realm of beauty and intimacy. It’s a musical reverie that manages to capture the exultation of the arrival of the weekend, and the sanctity of Black community. — \u003cem>Aisha Harris \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Mucho Mucho Amor\u003c/em>\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>(Netflix)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Netflix presented this documentary about legendary astrologer Walter Mercado to an audience that included both people who grew up watching him on television every day and people who knew him hardly at all. It told a story that was alternatively sad and stirring, but it ultimately gave the man his due as a legend who was part of the lives of many families and who found himself poorly treated by some of those close to him. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The New Pope \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(HBO and HBO Max) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The New Pope\u003c/em>, like \u003cem>The Young Pope\u003c/em> before it, is all about jockeying for a very earthly kind of power behind the scenes of the Vatican. The vaguely odd, singular tone of that first series persists, as does the many Italian actors’ tendencies to emphasize words that native English speakers wouldn’t necessarily emphasize, and insert long, meaningful pauses (creator Paolo Sorrentino loves his pauses) where native English speakers wouldn’t. It all adds to the sense that you’re watching the show from across a vague, yet palpable cultural divide—the ecclesiastical drama as Mentos commercial. Despite the title change and the swapping out of Jude Law’s Pius XIII for John Malkovich’s Sir John Brannox, Sorrentino’s camera still tracks slowly and languidly through immense arched hallways, vaulted rooms and lush gardens, pausing to alight upon small, telling details. Malkovich revels in his portrayal of Brannox as a louche, mascara-wearing British fop who flounces through life—a man who can be counted upon to find the nearest chaise in any room and recline upon it as if he has just been roughly flung there. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Normal People\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (Hulu)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Sally Rooney novel about two young students who fall in love and watch their lives intersect over many years was a hit, and adapting it into a limited series was a challenge since it’s so reliant on the interiority of the lead characters. But leads Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal brought their scenes together an intimacy and grace that kept the wide-ranging story in focus. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>On The Record \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(HBO Max)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making a documentary about the reckoning over sexual harassment in music would have been too broad an assignment for any filmmaker. So it makes sense that this one is narrower: It is primarily about allegations against hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, and even more specifically about Drew Dixon, an A&R executive who says she saw her career founder after being assaulted by Simmons. — \u003cem>Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Ozark, Season 3\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (Netflix) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics who dismiss this drama about a family juggling internal drama and FBI scrutiny while laundering money for a Mexican drug cartel in the Ozarks (some have dubbed it “Breaking Bad: The Family Edition”) have missed the point. Especially in this year’s powerhouse third season, Ozark raised its game, adding Janet McTeer as a domineering cartel lawyer and Tom Pelphrey in a shamefully under-recognized turn as the bipolar brother of matriarch Wendy Byrde, played by Laura Linney. Pelphrey was heart-rending as the only person who saw how terrible the Byrdes’ activities were, despite his mental illness. And the show’s ability to keep viewers invested in Jason Bateman’s numbers whiz, patriarch Marty Byrde—no matter who he gets killed or rips off—is nothing short of amazing. — \u003cem>Eric Deggans\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>P-Valley \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(STARZ) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In lesser hands, Uncle Clifford (Nicco Annan)—the towering, flamboyant non-binary strip club owner whose drawl kind of sounds like Katt Williams—could have easily turned out to be little more than sassy caricature. But Katori Hall’s soapy melodrama about a rural Mississippi town and its colorful inhabitants takes its characters seriously, and over the course of this crackling first season they emerge more unique and interesting than their “types” might initially suggest. The show also brings a new level of respect to the artistry and precision of pole dancing—among the highlights are those extensive routines backed by dirty, thumping Southern hip-hop. — \u003cem>Aisha Harris\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Queen’s Gambit\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (Netflix) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before I saw one scene of chess play, I was all in for a miniseries showing a talented, self-possessed woman mastering a game dominated by men in the 1950s and ’60s, knocking them off like clay pigeons on her way to the world championship. But this series, crafted by Scott Frank based on a 1983 novel, also plays like a superhero origin story. In a magnetic performance, Anya Taylor-Joy brings liquid eyes and an inscrutable manner to chess prodigy Beth Harmon, who must overcome substance abuse, the influence of her suicidal mom and a sexist world to reach her goals. Toss in a period-specific, lavish production and direction that actually makes chess look interesting, and you have the ingredients of a modern TV masterpiece. — \u003cem>Eric Deggans\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Ted Lasso\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (Apple TV+) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> alum Jason Sudeikis is funny, bumbling and occasionally heartbreaking as Ted Lasso, a stupendously optimistic American college football coach hired to lead a Premiere League soccer team in England. The owner is actually trying to sabotage the team by hiring Lasso, who knows nothing about soccer—or “football,” as they call it in Britain. But she doesn’t realize his true superpower is that he’s so gosh darned nice. It may sound a little hokey, but \u003cem>Ted Lasso\u003c/em> somehow builds a wonderful comedy around the healing power of niceness—deflating any hokum with a well-timed joke or two. And considering how tough 2020 has been, we all could use a lot of that message right about now. — \u003cem>Eric Deggans, Linda Holmes\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Tiger King\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> (Netflix) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The subjects of this docuseries became the butt of a thousand punchlines, as viewers dug into the tawdry tale of Joe Exotic—a publicity-seeking, pistol-packing character running a private zoo in Oklahoma who was convicted of paying a hitman to murder his longtime nemesis, self-styled animal conservationist Carol Baskin. Still, the series itself is an amazing achievement, exploring the eccentric and often exploitive underworld of exotic animal collectors and conservationists. Joe Exotic was the show’s unstable center, given to stunts like running for president and participating in an unofficial, three-way same sex marriage. But the show also featured footage filmed over years, as directors caught crucial moments on film and climbed inside the heart of a devastatingly dysfunctional subculture. — \u003cem>Eric Deggans\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Time \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(Amazon Prime) \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a profound sadness at the core of Garrett Bradley’s arresting documentary about Fox Rich, a Louisiana woman who spent decades tirelessly contesting her husband Robert’s 60-year prison sentence for a crime they both committed out of economic desperation. But there’s also a sense of optimism humming beneath it all, particularly in how Rich’s story unfolds on screen: via footage from approximately 100 hours of daily video diaries she made of herself and their children over the years, in the hopes of eventually having the opportunity to show it all to Robert. Bradley and editor Gabriel Rhodes take this treasure of a time capsule and turn out an absorbing masterpiece. — \u003cem>Aisha Harris\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>What We Do In The Shadows, Season 2 \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>(FX and FX on Hulu)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As great as the first season of this modern-day-vampire mockumentary series was, it had trouble stepping out of the long … well, \u003cem>shadow\u003c/em> of the 2014 film on which it was based. That’s not to say there weren’t plenty of creative additions—Mark Proksch’s cardigan-clad “energy vampire” Colin Robinson, for example, the embodiment of all things evil … and beige. But in the second season, a stronger, more linear plot involving the show’s secret weapon (Harvey Guillén as Guillermo, the Staten-Island-based vampires’ long-suffering thrall/assistant who discovers as dark, hilarious truth about himself) leaves the viewer with the impression that the show has clicked into its groove. And speaking of groove: If the show did nothing but grace us with the presence of the marvelous Matt Barry at his bombastic best here playing the preternaturally self-impressed vampire Lazlo, it would be enough. — \u003cem>Glen Weldon\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=NPR+Critics+Pick+Their+Favorite+TV+From+A+Strange+2020&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Watch Leonard Nimoy Scare the Crap Out of America Over the Y2K Bug",
"headTitle": "Watch Leonard Nimoy Scare the Crap Out of America Over the Y2K Bug | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Looking forward to this year’s New Year’s Eve? No. Of course you’re not. The only way we’re allowed to celebrate the end of this most heinous year is to stay in, and do what we’ve been doing for the rest of 2020—Netflix and binge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as you spend Dec. 31 hanging out indoors, with bad hair and 10 lbs. of shelter-in-place weight, just know that things could be infinitely worse. How, you ask? Well, for one, you could also have Leonard Nimoy in your face telling you planes are going to start falling out of the sky at midnight. For that is exactly what he was doing 21 years ago when “\u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/105th-congress/house-report/827/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Year 2000 problem\u003c/a>” (as one Congressional report called it) already had much of America in a panic. [aside postid='arts_13874920']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nimoy’s 1998 instructional video, \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482640/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>The Y2K Family Survival Guide\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, is now a perfect (and hilarious) relic of the time. The hour-long exploration of the impending Y2K disaster is soundtracked by non-stop doom synthesizer, and awash with very confidently-stated conjecture. (The disaster is “inevitable,” according to one pundit here.) Happily, the film is now available on YouTube for your viewing pleasure—which is handy, given that a \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Y2K-Family-Survival-Guide-VHS/dp/6305300224\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">VHS copy\u003c/a> is currently for sale on Amazon for $98.89. (Frankly, that’s not even overpriced. Nimoy’s over-earnest musings and his guests’ hyperbolic ramblings make it worth every penny.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How fragile do we find ourselves against the juggernaut of our own inventions?” Nimoy queries. “We recall the fate of Atlantis … Have we allowed our own highly advanced technological innovations to far outpace our human abilities to control those innovations?” (\u003cem>The robots are going to kill us and we have only ourselves to blame!\u003c/em>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nimoy, in full Spock mode, then launches into a laundry list of everything that could possibly go wrong if computer systems reach the year 2000 and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/Y2K-bug/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">incorrectly register the year\u003c/a> as 1900. Dramatically interspersed with the sounds of happy crowds counting down to midnight (no, really), Nimoy utters the longest sentence ever committed to videotape. It goes like this:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>In dead of winter, at the stroke of midnight, January 1st, 2000, elevators may stop, heat may vanish, credit cards and ATMs may cease to function, airplanes and trains may come to a halt, telephones and televisions may not utter a sound, water delivery systems may not deliver water for cooking, drinking or bathing, streetlights, stoplights, lights in buildings everywhere may flicker out, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies may be unable to provide proper medical care, banks and stock markets around the world may suffer some form of meltdown, and nuclear power plants may cease to generate the electricity we need for all aspects of our daily lives.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>(“May” being the key word here. He could just as accurately have said “may not.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Nimoy seems perfectly sensible here next to the ramshackle team of featured pundits. Most of them lack credibility, and the film knows so, noting: “There are no Y2K experts because nothing like this has ever occurred before in the history of humankind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three of these commentators are an absolute dream every time they show up. One guy (who never even gets a formal introduction) is interviewed in front of a wall of large containers labeled ‘Future Food’ and ‘Preparedness Mart.’ He advises: “The people that are going to get a gun and a year’s supply of food and run to the mountains will find a lot of other people with guns in the mountains,\u003cem> in a bad mood\u003c/em>. So it’s best to stay in your community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sure, Bob. That sounds right. [aside postid='arts_13879872']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s Ted Knight, a British ex-Special Forces guy who describes himself as “a family safety preparedness consultant.” Initially, Knight makes himself useful, offering tips about food, water, toilets, lights, medication, cash, heirlooms and important paperwork. He advises people to stock up on puzzles (\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13879872/dont-worry-your-new-jigsaw-puzzle-obsession-is-perfectly-normal\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">hello, 2020!\u003c/a>\u003c/em>) and even manages to utter the sentence “Need for flushing water is number two” without snickering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Knight also has a brain that seems prone to malfunctioning. He adopts a deeply authoritative manner before uttering this absolute twaddle:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Y2K is a computer problem but it’s going to face the individual with their own reality. Whatever that reality is, it’s going to face you, face-to-face with a mirror, and in that mirror is going to be you.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Sure, Ted. Whatever you say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My other favorite white guy here (for there are many) is a pastor who seems doggedly determined to leverage Y2K to get more people into his congregation. “If the immediate response is to buy machine guns and camouflage and lock ourselves off from our neighbors,” he says, “well what’s happening is, what’s in the human heart is boiling to the surface. That’s why Christians have got to challenge that whole mentality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, directly after Ted Knight has been very firm about needing to stock up on enough food and water for six weeks, the pastor pops back up and announces: “There’s no way any one family could lay aside enough food, enough resources to survive this thing on their own.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sure, Pastor Stephen. Everyone needs to go to your church. [aside postid='arts_13884491']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watching the \u003cem>Y2K Family Survival Guide\u003c/em> in 2020, in the middle of a global pandemic, is extraordinary on a number of levels. It’s a trip back to a simpler time when reasons to worry were so thin on the ground that we actively invented them. It’s a reminder that, actually, (most) Americans are much better at keeping calm and carrying on than we were given credit for 21 years ago. And, most of all, it’s proof that 2020 isn’t the scariest New Year’s Eve in recent memory. (The acoustic ballad about “perpetual night” that closes the \u003cem>Y2K Family Survival Guide\u003c/em> really solidifies the overall vibe.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enjoy the surreal magnificence for yourself, in full, below. Then enjoy your New Year’s Eve, safe and indoors (and minus a basement full of guns and dehydrated food).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEhEQEG43RU\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Think New Year's Eve 2020 is lousy? Allow Leonard Nimoy to whisk you to 1999, when the world was about to end.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Looking forward to this year’s New Year’s Eve? No. Of course you’re not. The only way we’re allowed to celebrate the end of this most heinous year is to stay in, and do what we’ve been doing for the rest of 2020—Netflix and binge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as you spend Dec. 31 hanging out indoors, with bad hair and 10 lbs. of shelter-in-place weight, just know that things could be infinitely worse. How, you ask? Well, for one, you could also have Leonard Nimoy in your face telling you planes are going to start falling out of the sky at midnight. For that is exactly what he was doing 21 years ago when “\u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/105th-congress/house-report/827/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Year 2000 problem\u003c/a>” (as one Congressional report called it) already had much of America in a panic. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nimoy’s 1998 instructional video, \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482640/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>The Y2K Family Survival Guide\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, is now a perfect (and hilarious) relic of the time. The hour-long exploration of the impending Y2K disaster is soundtracked by non-stop doom synthesizer, and awash with very confidently-stated conjecture. (The disaster is “inevitable,” according to one pundit here.) Happily, the film is now available on YouTube for your viewing pleasure—which is handy, given that a \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Y2K-Family-Survival-Guide-VHS/dp/6305300224\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">VHS copy\u003c/a> is currently for sale on Amazon for $98.89. (Frankly, that’s not even overpriced. Nimoy’s over-earnest musings and his guests’ hyperbolic ramblings make it worth every penny.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How fragile do we find ourselves against the juggernaut of our own inventions?” Nimoy queries. “We recall the fate of Atlantis … Have we allowed our own highly advanced technological innovations to far outpace our human abilities to control those innovations?” (\u003cem>The robots are going to kill us and we have only ourselves to blame!\u003c/em>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nimoy, in full Spock mode, then launches into a laundry list of everything that could possibly go wrong if computer systems reach the year 2000 and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/Y2K-bug/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">incorrectly register the year\u003c/a> as 1900. Dramatically interspersed with the sounds of happy crowds counting down to midnight (no, really), Nimoy utters the longest sentence ever committed to videotape. It goes like this:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>In dead of winter, at the stroke of midnight, January 1st, 2000, elevators may stop, heat may vanish, credit cards and ATMs may cease to function, airplanes and trains may come to a halt, telephones and televisions may not utter a sound, water delivery systems may not deliver water for cooking, drinking or bathing, streetlights, stoplights, lights in buildings everywhere may flicker out, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies may be unable to provide proper medical care, banks and stock markets around the world may suffer some form of meltdown, and nuclear power plants may cease to generate the electricity we need for all aspects of our daily lives.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>(“May” being the key word here. He could just as accurately have said “may not.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Nimoy seems perfectly sensible here next to the ramshackle team of featured pundits. Most of them lack credibility, and the film knows so, noting: “There are no Y2K experts because nothing like this has ever occurred before in the history of humankind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three of these commentators are an absolute dream every time they show up. One guy (who never even gets a formal introduction) is interviewed in front of a wall of large containers labeled ‘Future Food’ and ‘Preparedness Mart.’ He advises: “The people that are going to get a gun and a year’s supply of food and run to the mountains will find a lot of other people with guns in the mountains,\u003cem> in a bad mood\u003c/em>. So it’s best to stay in your community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sure, Bob. That sounds right. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s Ted Knight, a British ex-Special Forces guy who describes himself as “a family safety preparedness consultant.” Initially, Knight makes himself useful, offering tips about food, water, toilets, lights, medication, cash, heirlooms and important paperwork. He advises people to stock up on puzzles (\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13879872/dont-worry-your-new-jigsaw-puzzle-obsession-is-perfectly-normal\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">hello, 2020!\u003c/a>\u003c/em>) and even manages to utter the sentence “Need for flushing water is number two” without snickering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Knight also has a brain that seems prone to malfunctioning. He adopts a deeply authoritative manner before uttering this absolute twaddle:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Y2K is a computer problem but it’s going to face the individual with their own reality. Whatever that reality is, it’s going to face you, face-to-face with a mirror, and in that mirror is going to be you.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Sure, Ted. Whatever you say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My other favorite white guy here (for there are many) is a pastor who seems doggedly determined to leverage Y2K to get more people into his congregation. “If the immediate response is to buy machine guns and camouflage and lock ourselves off from our neighbors,” he says, “well what’s happening is, what’s in the human heart is boiling to the surface. That’s why Christians have got to challenge that whole mentality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, directly after Ted Knight has been very firm about needing to stock up on enough food and water for six weeks, the pastor pops back up and announces: “There’s no way any one family could lay aside enough food, enough resources to survive this thing on their own.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sure, Pastor Stephen. Everyone needs to go to your church. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watching the \u003cem>Y2K Family Survival Guide\u003c/em> in 2020, in the middle of a global pandemic, is extraordinary on a number of levels. It’s a trip back to a simpler time when reasons to worry were so thin on the ground that we actively invented them. It’s a reminder that, actually, (most) Americans are much better at keeping calm and carrying on than we were given credit for 21 years ago. And, most of all, it’s proof that 2020 isn’t the scariest New Year’s Eve in recent memory. (The acoustic ballad about “perpetual night” that closes the \u003cem>Y2K Family Survival Guide\u003c/em> really solidifies the overall vibe.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enjoy the surreal magnificence for yourself, in full, below. Then enjoy your New Year’s Eve, safe and indoors (and minus a basement full of guns and dehydrated food).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
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"order": 1
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"order": 9
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
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"how-i-built-this": {
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"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"order": 15
},
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"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
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},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
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"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
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"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
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