The Zoë Kravitz-led gender-flipped reimagining of Nick Hornby’s book and John Cusack 2000 movie, which was canceled after one season this week, premiered on Valentine's Day, a month before the coronavirus shutdown. Watching High Fidelity in quarantine amid Zoom hangouts "was like a broadcast from an alternate timeline where impromptu meetups at dive bars were still happening," says Angela Watercutter. "In many ways, High Fidelity is just one of many shows and movies that have come along to fill the void during quarantine," says Watercutter. "Everything from Twister to Tiger King has proven to be a comfort, or at least a distraction, as people while away the hours. Hulu’s show tapped into a certain kind of layabout, day-drinking malaise that is currently missing from a lot of people’s summers." Watercutter adds: "Of course, the thing that makes High Fidelity great—the hangout vibes, the hours spent in record stores and friends’ apartments—is the same thing that likely makes it hard to produce. Hollywood is slowly figuring out how to make TV shows during a pandemic (::waves at Tyler Perry::), but on High Fidelity there was a fair amount of hugs, making out, close talking—all things that break the rules of social distancing. Sure, Hulu could’ve bought some blow-up dolls, but that definitely would’ve chipped away at the show’s authenticity. Still, Rob (Kravitz) and her coterie deserved more time. We would’ve waited." UPDATE: Zoë Kravitz calls out Hulu for lack of diversity: "It’s cool. At least Hulu has a ton of other shows starring women of color we can watch. Oh wait.”

ViacomCBS says Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi, who was accused of underage sex abuse in the 1990s, won't have anything to do with the Comedy Central reboot. But, says Garrett Martin. "you can’t have Ren & Stimpy today with Kricfalusi, but the problem is you also can’t really have it without him—at least the Ren & Stimpy that people might be nostalgic for. The first two seasons of its original run were the episodes that built its reputation, and they all bear Kricfalusi’s trademark absurdity and love for the grotesque. The series ran for three more seasons after he was fired in 1993, but they weren’t well-received at the time and aren’t fondly remembered today. Kricfalusi himself had an opportunity to return to his show in the early ‘00s, but even with the original creator on board the Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon revival was a notorious disaster that was cancelled after only three episodes aired. So here’s a show that’s heavily dependent on the vision of a creator who’s now completely toxic and already proved almost 20 years ago that his creative tank for new Ren & Stimpy episodes was utterly dry." Martin adds that "even the once-popular and supposedly good episodes of The Ren & Stimpy Show absolutely do not stand up today. Kricfalusi’s vision might’ve turned the show into a phenomenon at the time, but today it mostly feels like empty shock value. It’s gross for the sake of being gross, and its characters are little more than loose collections of obnoxious traits that exist solely to set up jokes. Kricfalusi was inspired by the old irreverent shorts of Bob Clampett, and it shows; Ren & Stimpy lacks the character development and commitment to storytelling that cartoons have cultivated from the ‘90s on, which wouldn’t be a problem if its jokes were funny enough. They aren’t. The Ren & Stimpy Show is a great example of a short-lived fad that doesn’t really work outside of its specific moment in time. Does that mean a new Ren & Stimpy is destined to fail? Not at all. Perhaps a genuinely talented and creative mind will be put in charge of the revival, and recalibrate it into something that somehow fits the current culture without completely disregarding the spirit of the original. Still, of all of these nostalgic remakes coming to Viacom networks in the upcoming months, this is the one that makes the least amount of sense—and one that, in turn, makes the other ones lose a bit of their luster."

"DeGeneres’s reputation began showing wear months ago," says Alex Abad-Santos. "A pivotal moment in the dismantling of DeGeneres’s persona as TV’s friendliest talk show host happened in November during an interview with actress and celebrity scion Dakota Johnson. The interview, like most of DeGeneres’s interviews, seemed to be casual, as if DeGeneres and Johnson were old friends. But this typical pattern was subverted and dove into awkward territory when DeGeneres asked Johnson about why she wasn’t invited to Johnson’s recent 30th birthday party. The implication: Dakota Johnson is too cool for nice Ellen, or maybe she’s even a mean girl...Through admonishing Johnson, DeGeneres was caught fibbing and inadvertently drew attention to her controversial hangout with (George W.) Bush. For DeGeneres, who has built her career on being seen as authentically nice, her fib tarnished her reputation even more than watching a game with George W. Bush did." Abad-Santos adds of Ellen's recent toxic workplace controversy: "At this point, more and more people are coming forward about how awful it was to work at certain television shows with certain actors, writers rooms, creatives, and Hollywood bigwigs, bringing the reality of what it’s like working in Hollywood to light. The stories about abuse and caustic workplaces seem like symptoms of a bigger problem — an industry with little to no oversight or protections for its workers. But what makes The Ellen DeGeneres Show production team’s alleged transgressions more shocking is that DeGeneres has built an entire career and celebrity status by assuring us that she wasn’t like other celebrities. DeGeneres’s brand is about being so relentlessly kind and so interminably inoffensive that you didn’t have to worry about Ellen ever being problematic."

ALSO:

• How Ellen DeGeneres could win back her audience: Celebrities coming forward in defense of Ellen over the past week seemed like crisis management tactic -- and, in Kevin Hart's case, paying it forward after she defended him over his LGBTQ Oscar-hosting crisis in January 2019. "What both parties surely see as friendship is difficult to distinguish from mutual P.R.-crisis management, a way of closing ranks against the anonymous masses," says Michael Schulman. "Super not relatable. Misguided comity is one thing. Presiding over a toxic workplace is another. If DeGeneres wants to win back the trust of her audience—and her staff—she’ll need to earn it from the people who don’t have publicists and verified Instagram accounts, first among them the employees who took the risk of speaking out. It would be a shame if the accusations overshadowed DeGeneres’s consequential career, which really did change the world for the better. The bigger shame would be if the accusations are justified."
• From Tig Notaro to Eric Andre: Here are five stars who should replace Ellen

"The antihero saga has become the new procedural. In Perry Mason’s case, that transition just happens to be literal," says Alison Herman. "Of course, 'antihero show' and 'procedural' aren’t mutually exclusive; one genre pertains to character, the other to structure. There’s currently a cop show on Netflix about the literal devil! The two just have distinct sets of tropes, one of which is slightly newer to the TV lexicon than the other. The late-’50s Perry Mason discovered the efficiency of reusable sets and consistent characters as TV was transitioning from stage-like anthologies to filmed serials, a format that would soon come to define the medium. (The show’s use of legal consultants for factual bona fides, too, would become standard.) The 2020 Perry Mason is less a leader than a follower, but it’s adept at transplanting the dark-and-gritty treatment to its latest host with the help of a talented cast and a $75 million production budget...Shows like this latest Perry Mason inevitably earn unflattering comparisons to Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and other iconic series they’re squarely in the shadow of. But Perry Mason and its peers aren’t trying to replicate a now-20-year-old revolution; they’re invoking a legacy so integral to modern TV it’s become almost background noise. What Perry Mason aims for is something closer to Ozark, Netflix’s rote crime yarn that largely nonplussed critics but garnered a massive viewership and a slew of Emmy nominations. Another tale of a white-collar cartel associate, Ozark is less challenging than Breaking Bad, but also more accessible. Violence and amorality don’t guarantee shock value like they used to. Instead, they’re familiar tools, deployed with muscle memory and received with a knowing embrace. Originality isn’t the selling point there—nor with Perry Mason. The predictability is the point."

"It speaks to the gift of the show itself, its ability to draw recognisable experiences without flattening or homogenising, without smoothening its hard edges and making it easier for the audience to swallow," says Bolu Babalola of Michaela Coel's portrayal of Black Britishness on her HBO/BBC series. "I May Destroy You is as specific as it is universal — Blackness and Britishness infused in its essence. To watch this show without understanding that it is Black and British is to willfully ignore the fact — and yet, it exists not to be seen. It exists to exist, just as we do. This harks to the themes of complications, contradictions, and tensions that helm the series: Its Black Britishness is not notable, and to understand that it is not notable, you must first recognise that it is present and important. You must recognise that it matters. Black Britishness need not be removed to relate to the show. I May Destroy You, as a piece of art, is not in the business of servicing those who ignore the needful. It is an intellectually and emotionally vigorous show that gloriously presents its world without explanation. It is a show that states that when one says rah, you don’t need to understand to understand, babes."

ALSO:

• I May Destroy You might be the best TV show of the year: "At the center of I May Destroy You, which aired on the BBC in the UK (where it was primarily made) and airs on HBO in the US, is the very vagueness contained in its title," says Emily VanDerWerff. "Who’s going to destroy who? Each and every episode answers that question a little bit differently. And with nine episodes of its 12-episode first season having aired in the US, it’s safe to say this is one of the best shows of the year."
• Michaela Coel explains how much changed in her 191 drafts for I May Destroy You: "In many ways, a lot has changed," she says. "In other ways, it hasn’t changed a bit. At the origin of this show, I knew I would begin with sexual assault, and I had a version of the ending, which meant I understood the beginning and the end, but didn’t know how I would get there. I always knew where I was going, but there were hundreds of different ways to really get there. So it changed in loads of ways."

E!'s Nina Parker hosts Race in America: A Movement Not a Moment on Sunday at 10 p.m., featuring Bravolebrities talking about everything from racism to Black Lives Matter to white privilege. “This is unlike any other conversation,” says former Real Housewives producer Dorothy Toran, who's producing the special. “You could talk to someone and have a conversation with them for every day for five years and you would never have a race conversation. So I think when you open the door to a race conversation you will be surprised at what everyone says.”

Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich posted a picture of herself on set wearing a mask and face shield.

While Muslim-Americans have made great strides on shows like FBI and Ramy, there is still a need to show the nuances of being Muslim on television, write Sue Obeidi and Evelyn Alsultan. "Netflix's Messiah, for example, offers a complex context that includes a refugee crisis and U.S. military interventions," they explain in a Hollywood Reporter essay. "However, Muslim characters are reduced to their politics and religion, and culture and faith are often conflated. There are about 1.8 billion Muslims globally, and Muslim identity and appearance are incredibly diverse. It is lackadaisical how Hollywood was able to create a 'Muslim look' that is Arab and South Asian, and often times with actors outside of those communities. Black people make up the largest group of Muslims in the U.S., comprising 20 percent of U.S. Muslims. And the Latinx community is the fastest-growing Muslim community in the U.S. But we rarely see these portrayals. Expanding storylines that include Muslim characters really requires reflecting the diversity of Muslim communities."

"It’s been interesting, because I’ve been (quarantined) at home for so much of it," Bassinger tells TVLine while discussing the Season 1 finale. "I’ve gotten recognized once, because I just don’t go out. Nothing’s open! But I had my mask on and sunglasses — I have to tell this story, because it’s so exciting for me! — and I was talking to this security guard. He goes, 'Take off your sunglasses.' I was like, Um, OK, why?' He was like, 'You know why.' So I slowly took them off, and he was like, 'You know why… Stargirl.' I fangirled more than he fangirled, because I was so freaking excited to meet a random person who loves this show. He was so into it, and it was the best feeling. My heart was so thrilled."

"Plenty of public figures get divorced," says Alison Herman. "Not as many have a former spouse who’s wearing a microphone pack when they get the news via text. And yes, Chrishell did learn of Hartley’s divorce filing via text." Herman notes that "what follows is a fascinating mix of raw emotion and deliberate response. Stause’s shock and devastation come off as far more genuine than the show’s other ginned-up interpersonal conflicts," adding:  "But by blindsiding his then-wife, Stause would surely argue, Hartley set the tone himself. To an outside observer, the mid-production timing is odd: Couldn’t he have waited a few months to make himself look better—or, more cynically, until Stause didn’t have an entire production’s worth of resources to shape her own narrative? But in the absence of an explanation, we get a firsthand look at the fallout."

Luna's dinner conversation series Pan y Circo ("Bread and Circus") offers an invaluable perspective too seldom offered in mainstream English-language media of what Mexicans think of pressing issues like the drug war and the refugee crisis, says Inkoo Kang. But, says Kang, "shows like Pan y Circo depend on the suitability of the topics for group conversation and the chemistry of the guests — and unfortunately, the producers mostly flounder on both counts."

"What intrigues me is the common plot thread between all these divergent series: godlike technology run amok," says Darren Franich. "Westworld and Picard back into identical sagas about vengeful synthetic life. The former's noirish reboot in season 3 relegates great characters like Thandie Newton's Maeve behind bland tycoons controlled by a nefarious orb. That supercomputer sees everything — just like the device in Devs, which peers across time and space. Brave New World adds its own omniscient artificial intelligence to the 1932 source material. And Picard's finale climaxes with genocidal time-traveling megamachines. Actually, that's the second straight neo-Trek season to end with bad robots. Last year, Discovery stared down an all-powerful security system: Skynet for Starfleet, basically. Meanwhile, ambient techno-paranoia informs the new Twilight Zone's mood. In the season 2 episode 'You May Also Like,' iPhone-ish device anticipation becomes a spiritual fixation in a colorless world. I get it: We are all scared of phones, and bots, and the Algorithm. Yet by demonizing technology, these projects oddly exonerate the people behind that technology. CEOs with tragic origin stories in Westworld or Devs are puppets for machines they can't control. Higher-tech powers in Brave New World and 'You May Also Like' control whole civilizations comprised of unaware humans."

Now available for widespread consumption on HBO Max, the DC Universe series "looks like so many DC animated properties, but it announces itself as being its own ridiculous thing practically immediately," says Rich Juzwiak. "The opening scene takes place on a yacht where rich white dudes are partying. Harley smashes one guy’s leg, the Joker impersonates another by wearing his face as a mask (there’s no shortage of gore here), and there’s a prominent golden shower joke. As compelling as Harley’s arc as female supervillain learning independence after being mistreated for years is made to be, the joy of Harley Quinn comes in what feels like an infinite reserve of quick jokes and random asides, such as her eventual crew member Dr. Psycho getting canceled for calling Wonder Woman the C-word, or an extended bit when another member of her team, Clayface, loses his hand and it becomes an anthropomorphized cuddly pet companion to Police Commissioner Gordon, who’s a disheveled disaster of a man in this rendering." ALSO: Harley Quinn was made so much more compelling by ditching the Joker.

The Poison singer's 2007-09 three-season VH1 reality show was perfect because of its shamelessness. "For three seasons," says Megan Reynolds, "Micheals pawed his way through a bevy of good-natured women with curious fashion choices for the entertainment of a horrified general public, eager to witness the spectacle of a cock rock impresario making an attempt at establishing a real connection."

"David Wiener’s sprawling, intermittently daring sci-fi drama makes several updates to (Alduous) Huxley’s story," says Danette Chavez. "World Controller Mustafa Mond (played coolly here by Nina Sosanya) and Helmholtz Watson (now Hannah John-Kamen’s “Helm,” an emotions-and-orgy 'conductor') are rewritten so that they are played by women of color, which adds an interesting texture to their respective storylines. But the most promising developments in this Brave New World look beyond the framework of the source material to tap into real-life challenges to the established order. Wiener ventures into new territory by keeping the locale and introducing new characters. These additions don’t just question their place in the world—they eventually come to interrogate the system that creates a paradise for some and a life of servitude for others. Comfort breeds indifference in the upper castes; even the death of an Epsilon, a member of the lowest-ranking division in New London’s social order, only briefly snaps them out of their soma stupors. This tragedy is viewed as an anomaly that’s swiftly corrected by Bernard handing out drugs. The Alphas and Betas go right on about their hedonistic day, as is their duty, their place. It’s this idea of systems and the brutality people enact through them—which can take the form of redlining, food deserts, and gerrymandering in our world—that feels most relevant today."

After Dow filed a restraining order against ex Willis alleging he broke into her home, he fired back by getting his own temporary restraining order and alleging that she tried to choke him during an argument.

“We wanted to sort of create Homelander’s worst nightmare. And his worse nightmare would be a strong woman who wasn’t afraid of him and proceeded to steal his spotlight,” says showrunner Eric Kripke of casting Aya Cash. “I think that would hurt him way more than if it were a male character because he is a gaping hole of insecurity.”

Director Greg Whiteley says exploring off-the-field stories, including players' upbringing, has helped differentiate Last Chance U. "There would be no show if we simply edited out every uncomfortable, offensive thing that was said or done," says Whiteley. "By that same token, the show is made better if we do everything we can as storytellers to try and give proper context to why a father may be behaving in a certain way why a player may be behaving a certain way, why a coach might have said something. The story becomes more interesting, not less, when you don’t treat those people like villains and antagonists in your movie script, but instead as real human beings whose stories are complicated and nuanced. If you honor that, I think the show becomes better, not worse." ALSO: How Oakland's Laney College is handling its newfound Netflix fame.

Shows like Amazing Interiors, The Apartment and The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes offer alternatives to the homogenous HGTV aesthetic.

The eight-part docuseries following four sex workers living and working in Seattle "grapples earnestly with the societal challenges facing its subjects, which it presents without any judgment or perspective about the individual choices," says Jude Dry. "The series comes from a POV of genuinely caring about humanizing sex workers and de-stigmatizing sex work. Such uncomplicated support is almost non-existent in onscreen portrayals of sex work — and even if Sex Next Door does slip up at times — this fresh take is a victory worth highlighting."

In the cat-and-mouse thriller about a pair of London killers on the lam, writer Gaby Hull pulls the rug the rug out from under the audience again and again, until there's little reason to care about his characters or their fates, says Inkoo Kang. ALSO: We Hunt Together is grisly and gripping.

"Jeffrey Epstein was a monster, a smirking sociopath who believed he was superior to everyone around him," says Stephen Robinson. "It’s no wonder he appealed to so many powerful people, including princes and presidents. Film and TV have an unfortunate tendency to romanticize monsters, especially if their lives boast a veneer of glamour. Epstein, who grew up in working-class Brooklyn, has been compared to Jay Gatsby and Tom Ripley (the charming murderer from the Patricia Highsmith novels). Like Gatsby and Ripley, Epstein achieved great wealth (arguably through just as questionable means), but as the saying goes, behind every fortune, there’s a crime. In Epstein’s case, his fortune was both the weapon used to carry out his crimes and his personal shield against any accountability. Surviving Jeffrey Epstein, a two-part Lifetime documentary that airs this Sunday and Monday, doesn’t romanticize Epstein’s backstory or attempt to whitewash any of his deeds. It centers on his victims, whose lives he maliciously upended with precision and cold-blooded calculation. If you’ve followed the Epstein case, as well as the recent arrest of his alleged accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, you are aware of what survivor Virginia Giuffre describes as Epstein’s 'pyramid scheme,' where his victims were used to recruit fresh victims, who would go on to do the same. Unlike Epstein and Maxwell, these women have consciences, so their pained faces reveal the remorse they still feel for their involvement." ALSO: Surviving Jeffrey Epstein's interviews highlight the extent to which Epstein's high-profile associations validated him in the eyes of those he preyed upon.

The 2020 MTV Video Music Awards has given up on staging this year's award show at the Barclays Center, citing health concerns with filming indoors during a pandemic. Instead, the VMAs will broadcast from several open-air locations in different New York City boroughs on Aug. 30. MTV hasn't decided whether to go with "limited" or "no" audiences at the performance sites. This year's VMAs were poised to be the first awards show with a live audience since the pandemic started. “The 2020 VMAs will be held on Sunday, August 30th and pay homage to the incredible resiliency of New York with several outdoor performances around the City with limited or no audience, adhering to all state and city guidelines,” MTV said in a statement. “In close consultation with state and local health officials‎, it became clear at this time that outdoor performances with limited or no audience would be more feasible and safer than an indoor event. The VMAs will highlight the boroughs in an exciting show and return to Barclays Center in 2021. MTV will continue to work closely with the Department of Health, state and local officials, the medical community, and key stakeholders to ensure the safety of all involved.”

“Who knows if that’ll come about, but that’s the plan at the moment,” Succession creator Jesse Armstrong tells Variety of the coronavirus-delayed filming. He said the plans are far from concrete and “just conversations,” describing the current situation as “tough.” Armstrong also said the extra time hasn't been helpful. “We are letting the work expand to fill the acres of time we’ve suddenly found," he said. "I’m probably making no more progress than if I’d had six weeks instead of the six months that we’ve had."

George Stephanopoulos will lead ABC News coverage from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday of the Demoractic and Republican convetions, which kick off respectively on Aug. 17 and Aug. 24. CBS News and NBC News are likely to have similar coverage plans.

“Louis CK came thru and rocked with us!!!” photographer Mathieu Bitton captioned an Aug. 4 Instagram photo of CK with Chappelle, Michelle Wolf, DJ Trauma and Mo Amer in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Chappelle has been hosting comedians in the village where he lives all summer as part of a series of shows called Dave Chappelle & Friends: An Intimate Socially Distanced Affair. The photo is also notable since CK was once Wolf's mentor. As The Hollywood Reporter puts it, "Louis C.K.’s slow-burning comeback just got a boost from longtime friend Dave Chappelle."

Former The Office executive producers Ben Silverman and Paul Lieberstein's Remote was one of the first pandemic-themed projects when it was revealed on April 2. Created by Lieberstein, Remote is "set around a wunderkind boss who, in an effort to ensure his staff’s connectedness and productivity, asks them all to virtually interact and work face-to-face all day," per Deadline. “So many of us are jumping on daily Zoom meetings — for work and beyond,” Silverman told Deadline in April. “We are in a new normal and are personally navigating ways to remain connected and productive at work and in our home lives. With the brilliant Paul Lieberstein at the helm, we think we have a series that not only brings humor and comfort during this troubling time but will also be an inventive and enduring workplace comedy for years to come.”

"After lots of careful planning and an overhaul of our studio to ensure the safety of our staff and crew, we’re thrilled to announce that we’re back this Monday night with all-new episodes of the #LateLateShow!" Corden's show said on its Instagram account Friday, accompanied by two pictures of the spread-out set.

Pounder says the CBS drama's take “is remarkably reflective of how New Orleans was in terrible shape, until our mayor (LaToya Cantrell), with the help of her governor (John Bel Edwards), really put her foot down and was very, very strict. And then the numbers went down.”

Obsidian says she was tested twice before flying to Atlanta to film Season 2. Then she was tested every four days over the 16-day shoot. The cast and crew wore masks at all times, except when actors were on camera. Filming went by so efficiently that it was completed one day early. “It went by so fast,” she said. “I still wake up sometimes thinking I need to rush to set.”

The two former NBC Entertainment executives were ousted as new WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar is putting his stamp on the company. Their exits come a little over two months after HBO Max had a lackluster launch. Greenblatt's official title was chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-to-Consumer. Reilly's title was HBO Max and president, TNT, TBS and TruTV. Also out is Keith Cocozza, the executive vice president of marketing and communication. As a result of the shakeup, Warner Bros. chief Ann Sarnoff will take oversight of all network, film and TV studio and streaming assets. And HBO programming president Casey Bloys will expand his duties to overseeing content on HBO Max, TNT, TBS and TruTV, reporting to Sarnoff. Asked about the departures, Kilar told The New York Times: “Disciplined companies have to make tough decisions.”

The Great star has signed on for her second Hulu series, The Girl From Plainville, inspired by the controversial real-life story of Carter. In 2017, Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for sending text messages, at age 17, encouraging her 18-year-old boyfriend Conrad Roy to die by suicide. The case was already the subject of the 2019 HBO documentary I Love You, Now Die. The Girl From Plainville will be based on an Esquire article by Jesse Barron. The series will explore Carter and Roy's relationship and the events leading up to his death. The Post's Liz Hannah will serve as co-showrunner along with Dr. Death's Patrick Macmanus.

The comedy produced by This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman revolves around three strangers who share an obsession with true crime who suddenly find themselves wrapped up in one. Gomez has signed on to play the third stranger along with Short and Martin. Gomez will also serve as an executive producer.

HBO Max had been eying Aug. 17 for its rescheduled Friends reunion taping, but scuttled those plans after coronavirus cases began spiking again. There is currently no new target date for the taping.

Messing discussed Hollywood's untraditionally thin beauty standards in the late 1990s on Jameela Jamil's I Weigh podcast. "When I started Will & Grace I was a size 8, and what happened was, every time I would go in for a fitting, I couldn't fit into clothes," said Messing, according to E.T. "Eighty percent of it I couldn't fit into, and I would just leave hating my body and hating myself.  loved my costume designer, she would always say, 'Don't worry,' and she would talk to her assistant and say, 'OK, can you call over and get a larger size?' And that was sort of the thing that was always on repeat all the time. So of course, I thought, 'My life would be so much easier, and it would be easier on everybody trying to do their job, if I just lost weight. So I started doing yoga every single day and I did one of those meal delivery services. I started to get smaller and then I was a 6, and they were like, 'You're losing weight, you look amazing!'" Ultimately, Messing went down to a Size 2. "I was way too skinny," she said. "But, you know, going in for those fittings, I fit into everything. And all of a sudden, I literally could fit into anything that was high fashion. So all of a sudden, everything seemed to open up for me, because I was a 2."

Lakshmi's Hulu docuseries exploring the food contributions of immigrants to the U.S. will return for Season 2. Hulu has also picked up Chang's The Next Thing You Eat, a six-episode docuseries exploring  the massive changes occurring around the world and how they affect restaurants and food.

The 26 billboards featuring Taylor on the cover of O magazine -- one for each year of her life -- calls for justice for the EMT who was a police shooting victim.

Based on Ken Liu's short stories about Uploaded Intelligence, Pantheon will also feature the voices of Katie Chang, Chris Diamantopoulos, Grey Griffin, Kevin Durand, SungWon Cho, Krystina Alabado, Raza Jaffrey and Samuel Roukin. They join previously announced Taylor Schilling, Paul Dano, Rosemarie DeWitt and Aaron Eckhart.

Love, Victor was one of two shows original developed for Disney+ that ended up on Hulu. The other, High Fidelity, was canceled by Hulu earlier this week. Hulu says Love, Victor was its No. 1 drama during the week that it was released in June.

In a memo today to staff, NBCUniversal TV and Streaming chairman Mark Lazarus responded to allegations that Telegdy fostered a toxic work culture along with his top deputy Meredith Ahr. Telegdy exited the company Thursday as part of a larger restructuring plan. "We are going to conduct both an investigation into the specific allegations, which will be led by an experienced outside investigator, and a broader culture assessment," Lazarus said in his memo. "The culture assessment will be facilitated by NBCU’s corporate Fair Employment team and will give me the chance to learn more about your experiences.  I want to hear from you, and I encourage all of you to participate. Once it’s complete, you have my commitment to develop and communicate an action plan based on your feedback."

Michael Imperioli revealed his former co-star's musical taste last night on his Instagram comments. "he would play the vinyl of dookie in his trailer at work. Totally serious," wrote Imperioli, adding: "no joke. He loved Green Day."

Fuller said Friday that he’ll conduct an audition process over TikTok, which has been in the news this week with President Trump's saying he'll ban the Chinese-based social media app. “With the help of the TikTok audience, I will bring together a lineup of incredible artists to shape the next level of pop fandom,” Fuller said in a statement.

Inspired by the Twitter account of the same name, One Perfect Shot will feature directors pulling back the curtain on their most iconic shots. "The directors will literally enter each shot, walking through the scene in 360 moments that allow viewers to join an immersive exploration of moviemaking," per Variety. "Each filmmaker will share their obstacles, challenges, lessons and triumphs as they detail how they created their cinematic achievements. They will also present one shot from an auteur who deeply influenced them, outlining the inspiration that catalyzed their own imagination." DuVernay tweeted of the docuseries: "When you get to make a TV series about that Twitter account that you love. That’s me today. Gonna be a fun ride with @OnePerfectShot. Wait until you see the filmmakers break down their shots like you’ve never seen before. I mean..."

The Michael Strahan-hosted ABC game show is scheduled to return to work with coronavirus precautions during the last week of August.

“I wish it were true. But it ain’t true," showrunner Chris Mundy said at Virtual PaleyFest. Mundy added that Ozark‘s relatively high body count has become “a weird double-edged sword” storytelling-wise in that, “the deaths wouldn’t matter if the (actors) weren’t so good and they didn’t care so much.” ALSO: Mundy offers some details on Ozark's fourth and final season.

The revival of the classic 1993-98 animated series is set to debut on Nov. 20 with a 13-episode season. Animaniacs was picked up with a two-season order, so Season 2 will premiere in 2021.

The AMC episodic anthology series taking place 15 years in the future “when science has made a discovery that changes the lives of everyone on the planet – a test that unequivocally tells you who your soulmate is" has been picked up for Season 2, two months before its Oct. 5 Season 1 premiere.

The two dramas will be shown exclusively on AMC's streaming service starting on Oct. 1. They'll premiere on AMC next year.

Next week's weeklong series of special reports will include a Lester Holt-hosted Aug. 13 primetime NBC News special on schools grappling with the coronavirus crisis.

Watch the Curb Your Enthusiasm star celebrate "Naked Thursday."

Season 3 will pick up four years after the events of Season 2. Netflix showed Seasons 1 and 2 in 2018. The news comes after Haas recently earned an Emmy nomination for her role in Netflix's Unorthodox. ALSO: Haas had given up on a third season of Shtisel, but was thrilled to be proven wrong.

"The Faceless Ones" special will air over two days, Oct. 7 and 8.

Maya and Anna are back in their Hulu middle school comedy on Sept. 18.

The New Girl alum stars in a hybrid live-action/animated comedy, playing Keef, "an African-American Cartoonist finally on the verge of mainstream success when an unexpected incident changes everything. Keef must now navigate the new voices and ideas that confront and challenge him, all without setting aflame everything he’s already built." Woke, inspired by the life of The K Chronicles cartoonist Keith Knight, premieres Sept. 9.

The HBO limited series starring Jude Law and Naomie Harris premieres Monday, Sept. 14. Law and Harris will each star in three of the six episodes.

McQueen's BBC anthology series' first trailer marks the 50th anniversary of the Mangrove protest in London, when Black people demonstrated against Metropolitan police brutality.

AMC Studios is working on an adaptation of the 1992 film Stay Tuned, starring sitcom veterans John Ritter and Pam Dawber as parents Roy and Helen Knable who are sucked into their TV set into an alternate reality "Hellvision" as part of a deal with the devil. Stay Tuned was a box office bomb when released in summer 1992, but it has since become a cult classic. Directed by Peter Hyams, Stay Tuned also starred Jeffrey Jones and Eugene Levy. In the movie, the Knables have to survive in "Hellvision" for 24 hours, or else their souls would become the property of Satan. The film featured hellish parodies of everything from Wayne's World to Ritter's own Three's Company, plus I Love Lucy, SNL, The Dukes of Hazzard, MTV, The Golden Girls, Married ... with Children and more. Fear the Walking Dead co-showrunner Ian Goldberg will serve as executive producer of the adaptation with his Fear the Walking Dead colleague, Richard Naing, serving as the show's main writer. In a New York Times review of Stay Tuned, film critic Stephen Holden called it "a cleverly plotted movie that offers ample opportunity for spoofing anything and everything that can be found on television. Unfortunately, most of its takeoffs -- of a black-and-white gangster film, a spaghetti western and a period swashbuckler -- show no feel for genre and no genuine wit. The film is a bit more on target in its takeoffs of actual television shows. One of the cleverer moments is a 'Wayne's Underworld' segment of 'Saturday Night Dead,' in which chortling adolescents in ghoulish masks bash Roy in the head with the camera that is actually filming him."

After months of social distancing, it was odd to see so cast members in close proximity to each other during the Big Brother: All-Stars premiere Wednesday, says Daniel D'Addario. He adds: "This season of Big Brother does something upside-down: Rather than having news broken to them while the game is underway, these contestants are entering as fully apprised as they can be of the state of things. And rather than spending hours wondering what is going on in the world outside, as the Big Brother players of 2001 did, they seem contented to use the game as something of an escape. The show’s all-consuming nonsensicalness — physical challenges that take the form of lawn games, strategic conversations that come around to eating their own tail — are the thing that matter absolutely least at this moment, and as such, they end up accidentally becoming a great distraction."

The American Song Contest is set to premiere during the 2021 holiday season. The annual competition that inspired the recent Will Ferrell-Rachel McAdams Netflix movie Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga will follow the European Song Contest format, featuring "professional musical artists — solo singers, duos or groups up to six members — from each of the 50 states and across every musical genre performing on a live television event," per Variety. No word yet on U.S. TV home. The American Song Contest is from executive producer Ben Silverman, who helped in American adaptations of The Office, Big Brother and The Weakest Link. “I’ve spent 20 years trying to pursue this,” says Silverman. “When I was chairman of NBC, when I was an agent at William Morris and awhen I started at Reveille. I just love the format.”

Beth Riesgraf posted an image from Wednesday's second table read of IMDb TV's revival of the TNT crime series. Earlier this week, cast member Gina Bellman posted a photo with the cast in close proximity, all wearing masks. However, Christian Kane and Aldis Hodge weren't wearing masks in an Instagram photo from Saturday. Meanwhile, co-creator John Rogers tweeted of the first table read on Tuesday: "Completely surreal, everybody’s right back in the voices."

The reality show filmed for four weeks with zero positive test results among the cast, crew and producers.

Patterson, known for playing "Monk' Metcalf on The Wire, will take on the adult version of David role, succeeding Akili McDowell, who played a 14-year-old version of him in Season 1. Patterson will be joined by Arlen Escarpeta, who will play his brother JG.

The commission also rejected the Trump campaign's list of potential moderators and its proposal to move up the first debate to early September. "The Commission will adhere to our longstanding procedure of selecting the debate moderators. It will do so with great care, as always, to ensure that the selected moderators are qualified and fair," said the commission in a statement. ALSO: Don't deprive Americans of a Trump-Biden debate spectacle.

The music star will develop TV projects for Amazon's Prime Video platform.

The mystery singing game show inspired by a Korean format filmed one episode before the shutdown.

The game show in which pairs of contestants are forced to compete in a series of challenges while inside a small Perspex cube is coming to America, but WarnerMedia has yet to decide which of its networks it will air on.

Lionsgate plans to take the Jenji Kohan-created Showtime series to market this fall.

The original Channel 4 2013-14 series Utopia was criticized for its use of brutality. Showrunner Gillian Flynn says her version is  going in a different direction. “I’m more ‘less is more’ as far as violence goes,” says Flynn. “I’m the person who loves that moment in Rosemary’s Baby where we’re only seeing part of the conversation whereas the whole audience is trying to look around the corner to see what’s happening, or obviously Jaws. I’m a big believer in that. I don’t want it for a cartoon effect or for shock value. I think we as an audience are past most of that as pure shock value. I want to use violence when it’s effective and appropriate.”

Romy Reiner, who is also the late Carl Reiner's granddaughter, wrote the script for Born Again Virgin. Here's the premise: "In a modern world of increasingly-meaningless dating apps and superficial relationships, one young woman demands more in a relationship – or else plans to swear off of them altogether."

Glen A. Larson-created NBC 1982-86 action drama starring David Hasselhoff has spawned TV movies, spinoffs and even video games. But if completed, this will be the first Knight Rider theatrical film. Plans for a Knight Rider movie go back to 2002. According to Deadline, "plot details for this latest installment are being kept under wraps but we hear it will be a present-day take that will maintain the anti-establishment tone of the original."

Newest Proud Family addition Keke Palmer moderated an NAACP virtual reunion of the Disney Channel series cast. Palmer is joining Disney+'s The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder as a new character: Maya Leibowitz-Jenkins.

The engaged couple's breakup comes two months after Yrigoyen's support for the police amid the Black Lives Matter protests caused a rift in their relationship.

The Japanese anime workplace comedy returns to Netflix on Aug. 27.

The HBO Max documentary that follows CNN female reporters as they cover the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race "seems to be a stitched-together Frankenstein-hybrid of The Circus’ news summary model (which airs weekly and therefore makes sense) and its own human interest profile feature, here spotlighting the day-to-day operations of CNN’s women reporters," says Dan Jakes. "The trouble is that the film doesn’t serve either of its two aims very deeply." He adds: "In an early scene shot in her gorgeous Los Angeles kitchen, (Kyung) Lah discusses the sacrifice her family makes in her absence on the road. It’s understandable—at any level of seniority, time away from loved ones is hard and shouldn’t be trivialized. But the newsworthiness and stakes of that sacrifice just feels like such a sidebar compared not only to the global pandemic and economic crisis creeping in on the film’s margins (which get only the tiniest coda at the very end), but the other elephants in the room for women who work in political journalism in 2020. It’s strange that a documentary specifically highlighting the talents and challenges of reporters who are women doesn’t touch at all on the Trump White House’s uniquely shitty treatment of female journalists, or the broader movement to expose and reject normalized sexual harassment in the industry. Instead, On The Trail stakes its emotional climax on the end-of-summer-camp sense of finality reporters experience when, after two years of constant coverage, 'their' candidate suspends their campaign. The whole project is frustratingly indicative of CNN’s political coverage at large, which—despite having the resources and hired talent to do better—manages to point its camera in the correct direction and still miss the big story entirely." ALSO: The political realities have shifted so much over the past few months that the primaries seem like an entirely different election.

Giedroyc and Perkins' new Peacock female assassins dark comedy is exactly what it sounds like. "Admittedly, Hitmen doesn't profess the ambition of those other comedies," says Inkoo Kang. "With six 22-minute episodes comprising the debut season, it's content to be an appetizer. There's a 'just enough' quality to pretty much every facet of the series: the charm of its lead performances, the freshness of its jokes and storylines, the modest flourishes in its visuals and stunts. (Armed but physically graceless, the middle-aged, frumpily costumed Giedroyc and Perkins are also just barely believable as mid- to lower-tier contract killers.) In GBBO terms, there's nothing resembling a showstopper here, but it's perfectly proficient as a technical challenge."

ALSO:

• Hitmen's tonal fusion of slapstick silliness and wry heart is a welcome re-imagining of the lady assassin trope
• Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins were happy to surprise people with Hitmen roles: “It was nice to do something which was so radically different from Bake Off and to surprise people,” says Giedroyc. “You don’t often get the chance to do that in life, you get a bit pigeonholed and people just think, ‘Oh you’re the guys that talk about cakes.’ To get this job, go left field and do something different, felt brilliant.”

"The best comedic riffs on Trek, though, from Galaxy Quest to The Orville, are those where the laughs aren’t based on scorn, but recognition," says Christian Blauvelt of the animated CBS All Access series, created by Mike McMahan. "This is an insanely earnest franchise — an entire movie is about saving the whales and it somehow manages to be one of the best comedies of the ’80s — and so the humor is baked right in. You don’t need to add something else to the Trek dynamic. You just need to embrace the Trek dynamic. That’s what CBS All Access’s new animated comedy series Star Trek: Lower Decks achieves so perfectly. This may not be the best Trek series ever, but based on the first four episodes it might be the most Trek series ever. It isn’t a riff on Starfleet shenanigans, it’s the real deal, raw and undiluted."

ALSO:

• Lower Decks is an entertaining entry in a franchise suffering an identity crisis: "For all its glossy new aesthetics and adult content, Star Trek currently feels intellectually and emotionally juvenile in ways that frustrate," says Angelica Jade Bastién. "Even at its best, Lower Decks reflects the identity crisis that the franchise has been mired in since at least J.J. Abrams’s 2009 film reboot, grafting its iconography onto different styles instead of being boldly its own thing. At worst, you get Star Wars playing Star Trek dress up, like Abrams’s films in particular. But even other recent forays like Discovery feel almost embarrassed to be Star Trek in the first place, pulling from so many other science-fiction shows while treating Trek itself as a source of Easter eggs and recognizable characters to reference. (Spock, again?) Look, I don’t need this show to repeat the triumphs of the franchise’s 1990s past, but when I watch Star Trek I always hope for awe. Awe at the intricacies of the human condition. Awe at the imaginings of worlds both far-flung and intensely human. Awe at its cerebral qualities. Awe at its hard-won optimism. Star Trek: Lower Decks is a lot of things: fun, raucous, adult in language but not in emotional landscape. But it’s also too cool to aim for awe."
• Lower Decks captures the fun of the Star Trek franchise: "It’s in those absurdities that Lower Decks mines its best humor and does so at an incredible pace in every episode," says James Whitbrook. "Jokes are thick and fast, from ones that needle at Star Trek tropes to knowing nods to the franchise’s long past. You don’t have to be a Trek diehard to enjoy the gags Lower Decks has to offer but if you love Trek, it becomes immediately clear, even when poking fun at it—especially when poking fun at it—that Lower Decks is with you every step of the way. It’s essentially a sci-fi take on an office sitcom, just with more scenes where alien viruses that turn people into rage zombies attack the cast. From blink-and-you’ll-miss-them sight gags and references to prior adventures, even to episodes that just build themselves around those sort of silly, geeky questions you’ve always wondered about the humdrum living or working on a Star Trek ship, Lower Decks constantly wears its passion for what Star Trek is on its sleeves. Even Mariner’s constantly rolled-up sleeves, much to the chagrin of her commanding officers."
• Lower Decks lacks punch, politics or purpose with lazy sitcom tropes: "A better version of Lower Decks could have followed the example of Discovery, which shifted away from the series’ traditional focus on the ship’s captain to primarily follow a disgraced first officer," says Samantha Nelson. "Creator Mike McMahan could have used Lower Decks to tell meaningful, funny stories about questioning authority by setting up a harsh divide between Starfleet’s ranks. But rather than providing any commentary on the number of redshirts casually sacrificed over the decades so the people in charge can look cool, or even examining the systems that put certain people on a ship’s bridge in the first place, Lower Decks quickly fades into a series of lazy sitcom tropes."
• It’s about half Star Trek fan service and half smutty workplace sitcom: "Apparently, that’s not an easy formula," says Mike Hale. "Through four episodes, Lower Decks feels caught in between. It’s a smooth and zippy package, but it doesn’t register very strongly as either a geekfest or a transgressive satire. Which is another way of saying it’s not all that funny. Wherever it’s going, it’s not doing it very boldly."
• Lower Decks is a little too breezy for its own good: The Star Trek animated series "moves so quickly through its various plots – each episode feels like it was fastidiously edited to remove any dead air – that it leaves no lasting impression," says Noah Gittell, adding: "There’s something admirable about how fiercely committed Lower Decks is to being low-stakes entertainment, which is difficult to achieve in an era in which there is pressure on all creators to be political."
• Lower Decks is the latest new Star Trek series to fail to justify its existence: "The problem is that, at least as of right now, The Lower Decks is less 'funny' than it is 'the idea of funny,' with voice actors doing high-energy, rapid-fire delivery of dialogue that’s never as witty or clever as it needs to be," says Zack Handlen. "Jokes are obvious when they exist, and while 'obvious' isn’t always the death of comedy, there’s a difference between using familiarity to build on a gag, and just grabbing the most obvious punchline in any given situation. Too often, the first episodes present situations where intellectually you know you’re supposed to be laughing, but there’s no twist or unexpected bit of cleverness to make it fresher than every other show that’s mined similar humor. That and a reliance on fan-service references to previous Trek properties gives the whole thing a feeling of something that’s designed to deliver on fan expectations without actually satisfying them. A large part of this is due to an inability to settle on an appropriate tone."
• Lower Decks offers comfort food, but it treads a dangerous line: "Winks, nods, and references are fine up to a certain point; they tell the audience that they and the creator are in on a joke together and can respect each other's knowledge," says Kate Cox. "Too many, though, are alienating: a viewer can start to feel that the creator understands the form, but not the function, of what they are supposed to be accomplishing. In the first two episodes, at least, Lower Decks manages to fall on the correct side of that line. I felt as though I were in a room with a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable fan just brimming over with things he wanted to say, rather than trapped in a 'how do you do, fellow kids' hellscape. That said, once the show has proven its bona fides—it's OK! I'm a real Star Trek show, I promise!—it could do well to lay off a little bit on the deep cuts that don't add anything. Despite its pushing to be considered a proper member of the canon in its own right, Lower Decks feels most like an amuse bouche: a fun little treat to keep you fed and happy until your real food arrives."
• Despite being well-animated and performed, Lower Decks fails to distinguish itself: "If you’re a Trek fan and not too much of a purist, you’ll have a great time watching the show gently take the piss out of the grandeur of Star Trek," says Joshua Rivera. "Otherwise, the best way to approach Lower Decks is as a workplace comedy about under-appreciated labor. Many episodes hinge on the feeling of being overlooked for being in a support position, of characters who aren’t respected as autonomous and skilled by bosses who let their position get to their head. In most cases, that’s fine. But there are moments when Lower Decks, entirely in passing, makes jokes that suggest an altogether more interesting show. One of the best gags the show has at its disposal is how working for Starfleet will kind of mess you up."
• Lower Decks is a largely joke-free missed opportunity to capitalize on a corner of the Federation workforce that has long enticed writers: "There's still room for Star Trek: Lower Decks to evolve into something with a stand-alone sense of humor, but for now it's best suited as a good-natured time-waster between installments of Discovery, Picard and whatever comes down the pipeline next," says Daniel Fienberg, adding: "The idea of doing a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern-esque Star Trek comedy adjacent to more iconic main characters is hardly revolutionary, especially recently. Leaving decades of fan-fic out of the equation, or even a one-off like the New Generation 'Lower Decks' episode, this was the premise of a proposed (and never produced) series from the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia team; it informed some of the funniest parts of Galaxy Quest; and it was at least part of what Seth McFarlane has wanted to do on The Orville. The combination of animation and the extremely talented and sufficiently geeky McMahan felt nearly perfect. What stands out early on in Lower Decks, and never ceases to be the case in the four episodes made available to critics, is how few actual punchlines there are in the series."
• Lower Decks is less Rick & Morty and more Saturday morning cartoon: "The tragedy is in the wasted potential," says Brian Tallerico. "Not only is (Gene) Roddenberry’s world a fun one in which to play in with the budgetary freedom allowed by animation but consider how progressive this franchise has been in the past in terms of sex, morality, and philosophy. So why take all of that and reduce it to an oil-and-water buddy comedy with an antiquated sitcom set-up in which everything that goes wrong in an episode will be patched up by the end of it? Audiences who embrace sci-fi, especially in animated form, need to be challenged a bit more than Lower Decks is willing to even consider, making it feel more like an old-fashioned CBS sitcom than a streaming service offering willing to push any sort of envelope at all. It wouldn’t be that out of place on network TV in the era in which the original Star Trek: The Animated Series aired."
• Recalling Star Trek: The Animated Series: The Saturday morning cartoon, premiering in 1973, was canceled after one season and 22 episodes. "Though it was short-lived, The Animated Series would prove to be an instrumental development in fans’ calls to revive Star Trek, a movement that culminated with the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979," says Keith Phipps. "It also proved how well Star Trek could work in animated form — even if it didn’t set a technological bar so high that subsequent shows wouldn’t have trouble clearing them."
• Creator Mike McMahan says Lower Decks grew out of his love for Star Trek: The Next Generation: "Everything you see on screen is not only a choice, it's got to be painstakingly tracked and drawn and moved," he says. "That's why when you watch those old Looney Tunes the background just repeats over and over when they're running. And the special effects are handled differently -- beaming in a cartoon doesn't quite look as magical as it does in live action. But then you can meet alien races that don't have to have an actor sit for 13 hours to apply a prosthesis."
• Lower Decks writers had to strike a balance between accessibility and catering to diehards who grok every inside joke: "To tighten their connection to Trek tradition, McMahan and his writers conducted a Star Trek TV club, in which they would watch one old episode a night and discuss it the next day," reports Ben Lindbergh. "But he also stocked his writers’ room with some Star Trek neophytes who could gauge whether jokes landed without a comprehensive recall of the contents of Memory Alpha and help trim references that seemed inserted solely for the sake of referencing." McMahon adds: "The references in the show are either used for comedic purposes or for sci-fi texture. They should feel so nonstop that if you haven’t seen Star Trek, it feels like a mythologically broad sci-fi show that has a clear understanding of the world that it inhabits. But if you do know Star Trek, you’re like, ‘Holy sh*t, that’s a Bat’leth.’"
• McMahon says the Star Trek franchise has always been rich in comedy: “I don’t even really consider myself to be the first one doing it,” he says. “I just consider myself to be the first one doing this version of it. My favorite episodes of Star Trek always have comedic elements to them because they’re character based and the characters are so lovable. Worf, Data, Geordi, and Riker — there’s so many funny moments with these characters.”