Author Archives: Roger Catlin

Jane Lynch hosts a sixth season for “Hollywood Game Night” (NBC, 9 p.m.). The names of the players tonight may not be recognizable, but the faces certainly will be, culled from shows like “American Ninja Warrior,” “The Good Place” and “Superstore.” The return comes on a night already full of games like “The Wall” (NBC, [...]

Pop, the U.S. home of Canada’s “Schitt’s Creek,” brings another comedy about poverty level living. “Florida Girls” (Pop, 10 and 10:30p.m.) celebrates the life of 20-something girls struggling to survive in the gritty beach settings based on Clearwater. Laura Chinn, a former writer on “The Mick” recalls her own growing up in a place where [...]

Erin Lee Carr, daughter of late New York Times correspondent, turns in an intriguing two part documentary on the celebrated case of a Massachusetts teen charged in the connection with the death of her boyfriend, who, texted him encouraging his suicide. Titled “I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth vs. Michelle Carter” (HBO, 8 p.m.), [...]

The 50th anniversary of the moon landing is July 20, but it will take nearly two weeks to get all the specials in. “Chasing the Moon” is a three-part documentary on “American Experience” (PBS, 9 p.m., check local listings) that steps back to look at all the steps to reach the seemingly-impossible goal. “The Armstrong [...]

They’ve already stylishly dissected the decades from the 60s to the 2000s, now Tom Hanks and his production team of Gary Goetzman and Mark Herzog take a much broader look at “The Movies” (CNN, 9 p.m.) in a six-part series that covers the last half century. That means parsing through flicks we know quite well [...]

It’s an Algiers double feature on Turner Classic Movies with Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1966 “The Battle of Algiers” (8 p.m.). Ana DuVernay introduces the influential film about the Algiers overthrow of the occupying French Foreign Legion in 1957, shot on the streets it took place. It’s paired with the 1938 crime film “Algiers” (10:15 p.m.) with [...]

Cindy Busby stars as a manic new stepmom in the made-for-TV “The Wrong Stepmother” (Lifetime Movies, 8 p.m.), which also features Vivica A. Fox, Corin Nemec, Tracy Nelson, Calli Taylor and McKinley Blehm. It’s the first of four consecutive Friday night movies featuring and produced by Fox. Coming up this month are: “The Wrong Boy [...]

The little kids on “Stranger Things” (Netflix, streaming) are now gangly teens in season three of the popular sci-fi series and they’re hanging around a lot in the mall. The 1980s setting certainly invites the Spielberg touches, though the new season is supposedly more influenced by “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” Stranger yet is the [...]

“The Romanoffs” were already the subject of Matthew Weiner’s streaming series, now they are the subject of the more historical re-dramatization “The Last Czars” (Netflix, streaming), a British series filmed in Lithuania about the fall of the Russian family that stars Ben Cartwright and Susanna Herbert (pictured) but also includes a number of historian talking [...]

Amid the excesses planned for July Fourth celebrations is the culinary competitions televised on ESPN each year — the hot dog eating contest, a speed eating spectacle sure to cause fireworks in the stomach. To prepare this year, there is a documentary about the lives of professional competitive eaters on “30 for 30: The Good, [...]