TELEVISION

Bridgerton: in a show full of sex, many of the characters know little about it – the real ladies of the ton weren’t so ignorant. Even if you’ve not watched the show, you’re likely to know that Bridgerton is filled with steamy scenes of lords and ladies, dukes and duchesses locked in passionate embraces. The third season, set in 1815, is as sexy as ever … for some. One of this season’s major side plots is the Featherington family’s need for a male heir. With both Prudence (Bessie Carter) and Philippa (Harriet Cains) now married, Lady Featherington (Polly Walker) is desperate for one of her daughters to produce an heir and inherit the family estate. And time is of the essence. With questions arising over the authenticity of the inheritance document, the girls need to get to work before...

James Clavell’s ‘Shōgun’ is reimagined for a new generation of TV viewers In 1980, when James Clavell’s blockbuster historical novel Shōgun was turned into a TV miniseries, some 33% of American households with a television tuned in. It quickly became one of the most viewed miniseries to date, second only to Roots. I’m a historian of Japan who specializes in the history of the Tokugawa, or early modern era – a period from 1603 to 1868, during which the bulk of the action in Shōgun takes place. As a first-year graduate student, I sat glued to the television for five nights in September 1980, enthralled that someone cared enough to create a series about the period in Japan’s past that had captured my imagination. I wasn’t alone. In 1982, historian Henry D. Smith estimated that one-fift...

From the comedic mind of Tina Fey comes a new twist on the modern classic. MEAN GIRLS New student Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is welcomed into the top of the social food chain by the elite group of popular girls called “The Plastics,” ruled by the conniving queen bee Regina George (Reneé Rapp) and her minions Gretchen (Bebe Wood) and Karen (Avantika). However, when Cady makes the major misstep of falling for Regina’s ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), she finds herself prey in Regina’s crosshairs. As Cady sets to take down the group’s apex predator with the help of her outcast friends Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), she must learn how to stay true to herself while navigating the most cutthroat jungle of all: high school.

Reality TV show contestants are more like unpaid interns than Hollywood stars. In December 2018, John Legend joined then-newly elected U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to criticize the exploitation of congressional interns on Capitol Hill, most of whom worked for no pay. Legend’s timing was ironic. NBC’s “The Voice” had just announced that Legend would join as a judge. He would go on to reportedly earn US$14 million per season by his third year on the show. Meanwhile, all of the participants on “The Voice,” save for the winner, earned $0 for their time, apart from a housing and food stipend – much like those congressional interns. The fall 2023 TV lineup will be saturated with low-cost reality TV shows like “The Voice”; for networks, it’s an end-around to the ongoing TV writers and ac...

The Real Housewives Of Miami. This entry in the "Real Housewives" franchise sticks to the tried-and-true formula that has made other incarnations a staple on the Bravo schedule. The women featured on the series are at the center of the Miami housewife universe, though not all are actually wives at the time of the show's filming. Among the women are Adriana De Moura, known as the Brazilian bombshell of Miami's art scene, and Texas native Lea Black, a committed philanthropist who is married to one of America's top criminal defense attorneys.