‘Last Man’ Still Standing, ‘Cool Kids,’ Amazon’s ‘King Lear’
All your Friday must-see TV!
Last Man Standing (8/7c, Fox): “The TV business can be a heartless bastard,” quips Vanessa Baxter (Nancy Travis), one of many well-earned meta jokes nodding at the rebirth of Tim Allen’s family sitcom, a full year after ABC canceled the show following its sixth season. While never the blockbuster crowd-pleaser of his breakthrough sitcom Home Improvement, there’s warm acknowledgement in the season premiere that opposites can exist under one roof, whether the differences be gender or political. The most provocative storyline involves liberal-minded son-in-law Ryan (Jordan Masterson) setting Mike (Allen) and Vanessa on edge with his plan to escape the madness of our polarized times. In a more traditional sitcom-worthy running gag, the family reacts to the new actress (Molly McCook) playing vacuous middle daughter Mandy.
The Cool Kids (8:30/7:30c, Fox): With apologies to Dorothy, Blanche and Rose, meet the Golden Geezers: curmudgeonly Hank (David Alan Grier), funky ex-hippie Charlie (Martin Mull) and flamboyant gay gnome Sid (Leslie Jordan), all settled peacefully if crankily into their retirement community. Disrupting the guys’ routine is saucy, brassy Margaret (Vicki Lawrence), a newbie whose lust for life may rattle their composure, but ensures the twilight years won’t be boring. These are terrific performers who could use fresher material than they get in the first episode. Still, it’s cool having them all back on TV, especially Lawrence, who seems more vibrant than in all those years when she donned Mama’s wig.
King Lear (streaming on Amazon Prime Video): Shakespeare’s classics can take so many shapes and forms. Glenda Jackson will bring her celebrated take on the tragic monarch to Broadway later this season, and in director Richard Eyre’s compact new adaptation, which clocks in at under two hours, Anthony Hopkins plays the ailing leader in a contemporary setting. The stellar cast includes Emma Thompson and Emily Watson as his treacherous daughters, Goneril and Regan, with Florence Pugh (AMC’s upcoming The Little Drummer Girl) as loyal, maligned Cordelia and Jim Broadbent as the Earl of Gloucester.
Inside Friday TV: ABC News revisits the largest murder-suicide in American history, 40 years later, in the two-hour special Truth and Lies: Jonestown, Paradise Lost (8/7c)… The ninth-season premiere of CBS’s Hawaii Five-0 (9/8c) looks back to the franchise’s very beginning in a retelling of the original series’ pilot episode, “Cocoon”… Also starting a ninth year: CBS’s Blue Bloods (10/9c), guest-starring Lou Diamond Phillips as a drug cartel member who Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) believes is responsible for his house being torched… HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher (10/9c) has quite the lineup, with provocateur/strategist Steve Bannon as the top-of-show interview guest, and astrophysicist Neal deGrasse Tyson appearing mid-show… HBO’s Emmy-nominated Tracey Ullman’s Show (midnight/11c) is back with six new episodes, featuring the versatile comedienne in provocative impersonations of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Theresa May, French first lady Brigitte Macron, Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker Bowles and Jerry Hall-Murdoch.
Conversation19 Comments
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All CBS: MacGyver, H5-0, Blue Bloods.
P.S. I thought Murphy Brown was pretty good last night. As I expected, it was a little awkward trying to cover the past 20 years as well as the past year and a half, but it all got worked in, and looks like it will work out. (Although the "media guru" guy is a little too cliche'd, imho.)
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I thought Murphy Brown was great last night. The applicant for secretary was genius. And threatening to go "all Dan Quayle on Trump" ? excellent.
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On "Saturday Night Live": Cold Open with Matt Damon as Kavanaugh was hilarious with him doing the crying and anger and drinking water (though I'm guessing the last item he drank was indeed beer). Also laughed at that Alyssa Milano cutout and Kate McKinnon as Graham. Also at whoever portrayed my Louisiana senator John Kennedy. On "Weekend Update"-Spot on for Jost and Che on Kavanaugh. Also laughed at McKinnon's RBG's take on Kavanaugh complete with those dancing "Ginsburns"! And what about Leslie Jones' Serena outburst! Favorite non-political sketch was of guest Adam Driver playing an oil baron in a "show and tell" class skit. That "dead bird" and his cane was a topper! About musical guest Kanye West-his performances are always interesting but I'm not a fan of him or his music. I think that's all I'll comment on...
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I skip over Kanye so I don't get sick.
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I would have liked to watch the Cool Kids, but refuse to watch Tim Allen for political reasons. So, no Cool Kids.
That's OK, because I like MacGyver.
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You don't have to watch one to watch the other. I watched Cool Kids on demand later.
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I saw bits & pieces of The Cool Kids. What I saw wasn't too bad. I see the network is going for the older demographic ("hey, that's us in 10-20 years").
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Not sure what Cool Kids has to do with Tim Allen, except that the show follows his. I don't think there's any political correlation between the two shows. But Cool Kids wasn't too bad, considering
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That's all it is. We only have basic cable, no streaming or on demand or whatever else there is. So there's nothing else to watch for that 1st 1/2 hour.
So, how was Cool Kids?
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Predictable. It was exactly what you'd expect it to be...stock jokes and gags that apply to elderly people.
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As DonMI says, it was pretty much what you'd expect. But on the other hand... I've definitely seen worse.
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Last Man Standing has always been a favorite of mine, so I'll continue watching . Will sample FOX's Cool Kids also. If its even half as funny as The Golden Girls that's good enough for me.
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I'm not a big fan of Last Man. It has nothing to do with politics. I just don't think it's *that* funny. I didn't really care for his first show either.
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Last Man Standing is not the funniest show on TV, but I love Tim Allen and the rest of the cast. It generates enough laughs from me , making it a worthwhile half hour . Hoping The Cool Kids is funny.
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again ew did a review basiclly pointing out what you said that if you liked it you'll like it if you don't then you don't, but that's the great thing there's something called a clicker and i believe it's either h50 or macgyver and look tim has never hid who he is although at fox the writers seem to were able to get a lot more in then
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I did like Home Improvement (Allen's previous show) because even though his character was the typical "doofus dad," the show seemed to have heart. Maybe it was more because of the wife than it was him. Anyway, the reason I never checked out Last Man was because it sounded way too similar to Home Improvement: a "manly man" who constantly bemoans the lack of "manliness" in his modern life." All that's missing is the Tim Taylor "grunt."
Plus, I don't care for Nancy Allen. I didn't like her on Becker, so I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like her here.
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It's actually Nancy Travis. Nancy Allen is the former wife of Brian DePalma and appeared in his movies Carrie, Dressed to Kill, and Blow Out.
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Oops, you''re right. My mistake. I *did* know her name, just typed the wrong one. Thanks for the correction.
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MacGyver...possibly Five-0...and I'll probably take a look at The Cool Kids.
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