G.H. Harding
LATE SHOW ENDS FOREVER — Thursday’s end for Stephen Colbert’s Late Show was a mixed bag for certain. An ongoing skit about a wormhole with Neil de Grasse Tyson felt flat every time and was a complete distraction. Paul McCartney was great and actually gave one of the best interviews I’ve ever seen him do. He was funny and lucid. His remembrances of his first time in 1964 in theater (62 years ago!) were pure gold too. He started to tell Colbert a story about birds and Colbert asked him if he meant girls … and McCartney without missing a beat, said: Stephen, that’s another story.
The musical portion with McCartney performing “Hello Goodbye” with Elvis Costello and John Baptiste was good, but not great; a few more bold-faced names might have been included. 6.7 million viewers watched, making it his biggest ratings-episode ever.
Colbert was definitely an acquired taste but CBS screwed him for sure. We’re in the new normal now folks, so expect even more changes in the TV-landscape.
Colbert appeared the very next day on the cable-access show Only In Monroe in Michigan with Jeff Daniels and Jack White, saying he wanted to appear before Paramount acquired them. Clever for sure. Kudos.
BOSTON BLUE — I somehow became a fan ofBlue Bloods, with Tom Selleck, and watched almost every episode, including the series finale. I never got Selleck as Magnum, but somehow his role as NY-police commissioner Frank Reagan got me immediately. He was always elegant and always right. When that showed ended, after 14 seasons, Donnie Wahlberg re-surfaced with Boston Blue,which shoots in Vancouver, but amazingly retained many of the points that made Blue Bloods such a success; like the Friday night family dinner. They’ve even had several Blue Blood characters appear. Len Cariou for one, was just sensational,After a groundswell of outrage for the cancellation of Blue Bloods, Boston Blue roared out of the gate and has been a consistent winner for CBS. Their finale for their first season (“Patrol”) was Friday and it was just tremendous; tying up several looose ends and leaving a catastrophic cliffhanger for next season.
NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 09: Gloria Reuben and publicist David Salidor attends the performance of Gloria Reuben at Metropolitan Room on April 9, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Bobby Bank/WireImage)
Wahlberg is surprisingly good. Not that I didn’t think he could carry it, but the show is 90% him now. Also, Ernie Hudson, from Ghostbusters, and Gloria Reuben are tremendous too. I’ve watched many of these so-called sequel shows and this one has proven to be the best. I am quite impressed.
BOROUGH THINGS — We managed to watch all 8 episodes of Netflix’s The Boroughs – executive produced by the Duffer Brothers of Stranger Things mega-stardom. Before I watched it, I spied a headline about the show saying it was Stranger Things for adults. Well, after watching the series, let me adjust that a tad and say it is a show about adults.
The entire series takes place at a retirement home, The Boroughs, that turns out to be run entirely by a species of alien that’s never really determined. The first three episodes delve into the various characters as essayed by the great Alfred Molina; Jena Malone; Bill Pullman; Denis O’Hare; Geena Davis; and a very strong Alfre Woodard. Also, there are appearances from Dee Wallace (ET) and Mary McDonnell (Dances With Wolves).
The 4th episode delves into the sci-fy aspect of the show and though it looses just a tad of realism, it’s all done very nicely. I’m a huge Molina fan and he stands heads-and-shoulder’s above the rest off the cast, although O’Hare, who has been on countlessLaw & Order-epsiode as a lawyer, is brilliant as a terminal-ill patient in the home. Davis, looking as youthful and luscious as ever is terrific too. The casting here was impeccably done.
Once it changes pace a bit, there’s no denying it’s a Stranger Things-offshoot. That said, and I did adore Stranger Things, this was quite a story and yes, the door is left open for a sequel, which I predict will happen.
Nothing terribly earth-shattering here, but it was a trip well worth taking.
SHORT TAKES — Eyeballing the scheudle for next month’s Tribeca Festival, I didn’t see too many standout films. They’re opening with Questlove’s doc on Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs. That’s The Weight Of The World). btw: I love that title. Stay tuned …
Three weeks ago I finally got to see Buena Vista Social Club (Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre) and just loved it. I was lucky enough to visit Cuba years ago and fell in love with it. The people, the music, the culture … I loved it all. The record, which came out in 1996, was great, but the play does have a story wrapped around the tremendous music. The very first thing that grabbed me in the show, was that the put away your phone message was in Spanish.
Cuba
The story behind the album is that Ry Cooder went to record an album in Cuba using African musicians and found that he had to employ Cuban-musicians when the other musicians could not get there. The music, based on the album which came out 1996, is simply tremendous. Hypnotic, melodic and truly memorable. And yes, there was a Buena Vista Social Club, which is accurately portrayed in the play. I loved it … Netflix has partnered with iHeartMedia to release the radio morning show and podcast The Breakfast Club live each weekday on the global streamer. Beginning June 1, The Breakfast Club will air … Kudos to Micky Dolenz and band (and, Lawrence Juber) who performed in the rain at Abbey Road On The River this weekend. They were also joined by The Cowsills for an encore … The creators of Hacks, which has its finale this week, are figuring out a way to have a DVD box-set released of all their seasons and outtakes. Sounds like a brilliant idea … RIP Kitty Bruce and Michael Bennett Newman.
NAMES IN THE NEWS — Tom & Lisa Cuddy; Curtis Urbina; Maury Povich; Savannah Guthrie; Matt Lauer; Graydon Carter; Matt Field; Jane Rosenthal; Robert Funaro; Eddie Chestnut; Thomas Silverman; Monica Lynch; Freddy DeMann; Madonna; Mark Bego; Marc Elliot; Christopher Gilman; Ali Hawthorne; Morris Levy; Adam Levy; Warlock Records; Harrison Jordan; Mel Cheren; Michael Brody; and BELLA!
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source t2conline.com ’
