Screentime March 19 – 25, 2023

Your Weekly Guide to TV Entertainment

By George Dickie Hank Devereaux

Jr. is a man who is stuck.

As played by Bob Odenkirk in the half-hour dramedy “Lucky Hank,” premiering Sunday, March 19, on AMC and AMC+, he’s the chairman of the English department at Railton College, a badly underfunded school in the Pennsylvania Rust Belt.

Like his employer, which he calls “mediocrity’s capital,” Hank is also struggling. He’s not really happy with academia nor his department and his position in it, and his do-nothing approach seems to scream “fire me.” But he has people who care about him, especially wife Lily (Mireille Enos, “The Killing”), who truly loves this curmudgeon and is

Bob

FACT: YOU CAN THANK THE GREEKS FOR CALLING

entertained by his antics. But that doesn’t hold true for everyone. We meet Hank as he’s delivering a spirit-crushing critique to a spoiled student, which gets the attention of school administration. With his chairmanship and ultimately his job now in jeopardy, Hank appears outwardly happy about the prospect of being forced to move on. But is he?

The eight episode series was created by Paul Lieberstein (“The Office”) and Aaron Zelman (“Silicon Valley”) from the novel “Straight Man” by Richard Russo, and features a tour-de-force performance by Odenkirk, who found the character to be a complete and welcome departure

from his “Better Call Saul” role of shady lawyer Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman.

“While he’s a curmudgeon,” the actor explains, “he is like a lot of curmudgeons kind of beloved for the way he’s a crab. Like his wife finds it funny, people find him funny. They don’t take it seriously and they get a laugh out of it and he knows they get a laugh out of it, so he knows he can kind of indulge this crabby side of himself and everyone will just go, ‘Oh, that’s Hank. That’s funny. Just laugh at it.’

“And he has a daughter, they fight like crazy but they love each other. And he has a wife, they’ve been together for like 25, 26 years and they love

each other. So I loved playing a character who was funny, smart, good with language and had love around him and a life worth saving. So that really appealed to me an awful lot and for me made the character so fundamentally different from Jimmy McGill.”

But like Jimmy, Hank is a complicated guy with an estrangement in his life, in his case his much more successful father Hank Sr., a renowned film critic, which haunts him and is a relationship the series will explore.

“There’s an emptiness inside him that he’s very afraid of,” Odenkirk says, “afraid of feeling it, afraid of thinking about it but it’s very present. It drives him in a lot of ways.”

In Greek, the word for “Christ”

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“Class of ’07”

A 10-year high-school reunion turns into a nightmare when a tidal wave hits a gathering of alumni of an all-girls school and they’re forced to fight — for survival as well as with one another. Emily Browning (“American Gods”), Megan Smart (“Between Two Worlds”), Caitlin Stasey (“Bridge and Tunnel”) and Claire Lovering (“The Letdown”) head the cast.

(ORIGINAL)

In Focus

The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song 2023 (PBS — new special, March 31)

Legendary singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell is honored as the recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. This tribute concert celebrates the artist who set a new standard of marrying music and lyrics. With songs such as “Both Sides, Now,” “Chelsea Morning,” “Big Yellow Taxi,” “Woodstock” and “The Circle Game,” Mitchell became a household name and left a distinct impression on both American culture and internationally, drawing from jazz, classical and rock as she crossed various musical genres.

WebLinks

Seventh-generation cattle rancher and entrepreneur Elizabeth Poett and her husband Austin cut out early from their daily work to enjoy a casual sunset dinner at the special scenic hilltop overlook known as The Rosa in “Ranch to Table,” airing Sunday on Magnolia Network. Find this and more at magnolia.com/watch/

“Movie: Noise”

From the Netherlands comes this mystery yarn about a man who moves his family into his childhood home and uncovers dark family secrets while investigating a local factory accident linked to his father. Ward Kerremans, Sallie Harmsen, Johan Leysen and Jennifer Heylen head the cast for director Steffen Geypens (“Logger”). (ORIGINAL)

Sports Zone

Solution is on page 6.

BY GEORGE DICKIE

Here comes Judge – and the Yankees – in ‘23

Aaron Judge had a season for the ages in 2022, his 62 home runs surpassing Roger Maris’ American League mark of 61 in 1961. And that was followed by a contract to match.

No, the New York Yankees weren’t about to let their superstar center fielder walk to the San Francisco Giants or anywhere else in free agency, so they secured him through his age 39 season with a nine-year, $360 million contract.

The 2022 AL MVP has been a stalwart since arriving full time at Yankee Stadium in 2017, hitting a then-rookie record of 52 homers to go with 114 RBIs, a .284 average, a .422 on-base percentage and an OPS of 1.049. Rookie of the Year honors would follow, to go along with his first Silver Slugger Award and All-Star appearance.

But that would pale in comparison to his 2022 campaign in which his 62 homers, league-leading 131 RBI, .311 average, .425 on-base percentage and 1.111 OPS would put him in the record books alongside Maris, Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle as an all-time Yankee great.

Now it’s 2023 and as is usually the case in the Bronx, the focus is on winning championships. As the team’s captain, Judge will continue to lead by example and push the team toward its ultimate goal of being the last team standing in October/November.

Judge and the Yankees can be seen in action Thursday, March 23, when they play the St. Louis Cardinals in a preseason game in Jupiter, Fla., streaming on ESPN+.

FULL NAME: Aaron James

Judge

BIRTH DATE: April 26, 1992

BIRTHPLACE: Linden, Calif.

HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 6 feet, 7 inches/282 pounds

TEAMS: New York Yankees (2016-present)

POSITION: Center fielder

BATS/THROWS: Right/right

NO.: 99

HONORS AND ACHIEVEMENTS: Four-time

All-Star; 2017 Rookie of the Year; Silver Slugger Award (2017, 2021, 2022); American League home run leader (2017, 2022); record holder for most walks (127) in a rookie campaign; his 52 homers in ’17 an AL rookie record

BEST SEAN CONNERY MOVIES

“Marnie” (1964) In and around his James Bond work, Connery diversified by working with Alfred Hitchcock on this melodrama about a businessman with a strong interest in a troubled employee (Tippi Hedren).

“Goldfinger” (1964) Most Bond purists concur this is the first 007 screen adventure that really has it all, including a deftly balanced Connery performance that blends suave charm and rugged action smoothly.

“The Offence” (1973) Connery’s desire to get off the “star” pedestal manifested itself in this gritty police drama, again under Lumet’s direction, about a London police detective whose anger goes too far when he interrogates a suspect.

“Murder on the Orient Express” One of many familiar faces in director Lumet’s great staging of the Agatha Connery makes his presence known as one of the suspects questioned by

Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney). Turner Classic Movies shows the film Sunday, March 19.

“The Wind and the Lion” (1975)

Connery is superb as a Middle Eastern renegade who invites large-scale trouble by kidnapping an American (Candice Bergen).

“The Man Who Would Be King”

(1975) Originally envisioned for such stars as Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart, this John Huston-directed Rudyard Kipling adaptation was delayed many years, which was great news for Connery and Michael Caine in playing soldiers of fortune in India.

“Robin and Marian” (1976) This wonderfully mature take on the Robin Hood legend cast Connery opposite Audrey Hepburn (who played, of course, his true love Maid Marian).

“Outland” (1981) Pretty much “High Noon” on another planet, this underrated sci-fi tale features Connery as a lawman who targets a sly profiteer (Peter Boyle).

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“The Untouchables” (1987) Oscar came calling for Conner y, and deservedly so, for his portrayal of a Chicago beat cop whose street smarts go a long way in helping U.S. Treasury man Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) take down Al Capone (Robert De Niro).

“The Hunt for Red October” (1990) Connery stepped in for the originally cast Klaus Maria Brandauer in Tom Clancy’s tale of a Russian submarine whose captain may be trying to defect, drawing CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) into the matter.

“The Rock” (1996) If Connery could make such a great secret agent, why couldn’t he make an equally fine criminal? He could, as he proved in this Jerry Bruckheimerproduced action fest in which he plays a convict sprung to help a bookish FBI agent (Nicolas Cage) thwart a renegade general (Ed Harris) threatening San Francisco, using Alcatraz

“Goldfinger”

Solution is on page 11.

“Lucky Hank” on AMC

(Words

BY GEORGE DICKIE

Anya Banerjee

OF ‘THE BLACKLIST’ ON NBC

You attended the 200th episode celebration, correct?

Yes, and that was surreal. Talk about walking onto a set where everybody’s been working together for so long. I think it was my fourth episode ... . But yeah, it just really reinforced the idea that so many people are working in front and behind the cameras together to bring this to life. I mean, there were just so many people in the war room that day gathered around that 200th episode cake and (they) had (showrunner) John Eisendrath fly in and speak and to have James (Spader) say a few words that really cemented that feeling of being part of a family. Like people have gone through so much over the years while filming this show and yeah, it just makes me feel so special to come in for the final season.

Did you get to meet the actress who played your character ’s mother in Season 1, Parminder Nagra, yet?

I have not had the chance to meet her but when I was in primary school, that film “Bend It Like Beckham” came out and I just remember thinking, “If she can do it, I can do it.” (Laughs) And ever since then, I’ve been following her career and she’s one of the South Asian actresses I grew up watching who reminded me that there is a place for us on the screen. So it would be a dream come true to meet her. I really hope I do get to.

In Focus

“Murder Mystery 2” (Netflix — movie premiere, March 31)

This sequel to 2019’s “Murder Mystery” catches up with Nick and Audrey (Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston) as they’re now full-time detectives who get caught up in international intrigue when their friend Maharaja (Adeel Akhtar) is kidnapped at his own lavish wedding. Melanie Laurent, Tony Goldwyn and Jodie Turner-Smith also star for director Jeremy Garelick (“The Wedding Ringer”).

Crossword Puzzle

30.

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