Category Archives: Summer Press Tour 2017

Writer and standup comic Hari Kondabolu started his rant against  Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the cartoon Kwikee Mart owner, way back when he was on “Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell.” To be sure, “The Simpsons” (Fox, 8 p.m.) is one of his favorite shows, but the sheer popularity of Apu, the extreme accent and heavy dose [...]

Last year’s documentary on astronaut Scott Kelly’s 12-month stay on the International Space Station, seen as a precursor to an eventual trip to Mars, “A Year in Space” (PBS, 8 p.m., check local listings), gets a followup documentary, about his return and adjustment to Earth life with “Beyond a Year in Space” (PBS, 9 p.m., check [...]

In the six years since “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (HBO, 10 p.m.) has been on the air, any number of shows have followed, aiming for the same cringe factor. And Larry David sat back and watched it all try to fill the vacuum of years of no “Curb.” When David appeared at the TV Critics Association [...]

The venerable PBS showcase “American Masters” (PBS, 9 p.m., check local listings) steps away tonight from the kind of old time cultural heroes they usually profile, from Sammy Davis, Ella Fitzgerald and Edgar Allan Poe (to name three to be featured this season) to a more unusual contemporary figure in the midst of his career. [...]

Just as “Fargo” successfully advanced the spirit of the original film without exactly duplicating it, the new variation of “Get Shorty” (Epix, 10 p.m.) takes the spirit of the Elmore Leonard novel made into a popular John Travolta movie in 1995. Set in the present day, Chris O’Dowd plays the mob heavy who suddenly gets [...]