Don’t use the F-word around Megyn Kelly. “Failure” is not in her vocabulary—just take a look at the 46-year-old news anchor’s sturdy résumé. Kelly, a corporate lawyer before becoming a journalist, built three successful shows in her nearly 13 years on Fox News Channel, including the ratings-winning, news-making The Kelly File. (more…)
Colorado’s Bennett brothers—comprised of ex-football star Colt (Ashton Kutcher) and semi-screwup Rooster (Danny Masterson)— were grappling with a whole new herd of issues (pun intended) when we last saw them in Netflix’s The Ranch. Colt’s plan to propose to high school sweetheart Abby (Elisha Cuthbert) was derailed by the fallout from a one-night stand; Rooster had abandoned the family’s failing farm for a more corporate outlet elsewhere; and their parents, Beau and Maggie (Sam Elliott and Debra Winger), had finally, painfully signed their divorce papers after a valiant attempt to mend fences.
Not exactly typical sitcom fare, but The Ranch is not a typical sitcom. With salty language abounding and the show shot in multicamera format before a studio audience, it is more like the sister-wife to Netflix’s socially-up-to-speed, Norman Lear–produced One Day at a Time reboot. What results is an oddly endearing hybrid of broad comedy and tense family drama that doesn’t telegraph its laughs as much as mine them from the characters’ many flaws.
But at its heart, the show remains an exploration of the relationship between the boys, which gets a boost of riotous realism from the evident bond shared by former That ’70s Show costars and longtime pals Kutcher and Masterson. “His big break was That ’70s Show, and if you watch the first couple of episodes of Season 1, our timing was already on,” Masterson told TV Guide Magazine when The Ranch premiered in 2016. Here, the smarter-than-anyone-ever-gives-him-credit-for Kutcher expands on how the Netflix series is doing what no other TV show is attempting to, sharing the small screen with bona fide legends and which of his costars can actually kick his ass.
Also in this special Streaming Preview issue:
• Plus: A column by new contributor David Bianculli on TV’s Platinum Age, Derek Hough tells us what it’s like to be on the other side of the dance floor as a judge for World of Dance, all about those shocking spring finales and what’s coming, a new adventure for the lost souls of Preacher, The Handmaid’s Tale and Better Call Saul wrap things up (for now), and the best of movies, streaming, sports and more.
Get your mind out of the gutter! According to international superchef Gordon Ramsay, the F in his new Fox series, The F Word, stands for “food” and “family.” But we’ll see about that. With this latest TV venture, the hilariously temperamental potty mouth—whose string of hits includes Kitchen Nightmares, Hotel Hell, Hell’s Kitchen, MasterChef and MasterChef Junior—is boldly going where he’s never gone before. This is live TV, people! And the stress and anxiety will be off the charts. Each episode pits two groups of amateur cooks against each other—they’re families, friends, coworkers—and they must take over a state-of-the-art restaurant and prepare a dazzling meal for over 80 nitpicky guests. The winners pocket $100,000. But will they survive the wrath of Ramsay? We corralled the bodacious Brit to get a taste of what he serves up best: hot dish!
Plenty goes wrong on all your TV shows. In fact, you’ve made a fortune yelling profanities at cooks who screw up. What makes going live so different? It’s uncharted territory. I’ve never been this excited about a show! This is the first time the public will truly experience the electrifying buzz of a happening, functioning restaurant. Professional chefs go live every night—and it’s so theatrical! Our restaurant opens half an hour before we hit the air so that, at exactly five seconds past 9 o’clock, the viewers will be thrown right into the energy and excitement. [Laughs] We’re also live because I enjoy putting people on the spot.
Admit it. You also love to torture the censors. I like nothing better than when I do a cooking segment on one of the morning shows and they say, “We’re live!
Also in this special Summer Preview issue:
• Plus: Matt Roush names his early picks for the best of the fall, an early look at Ray Romano and Chris O’Dowd in Get Shorty, Prison Break‘s Mark Feuerstein tells us his TV favorites, a remembrance of character actor Powers Boothe, Master of None writer/producer Alan Yang weighs in on his impressive résumé, and the best of movies, streaming, sports and more.
When David Lynch and Mark Frost’s surreal Twin Peaks debuted on ABC in April 1990, the nascent World Wide Web was not yet a delivery service for instant feedback—or spoilers. Audiences found themselves frustrated yet intrigued with having to wait, week after week, to learn clues about the trippy show’s central mystery: Who bumped off small-town bad girl Laura Palmer (played by Sheryl Lee)? But even in today’s era of information overload, Showtime has unveiled only the most cryptic of teasers about the much-anticipated 18-episode revival, leaving fans waiting yet again.
Returning star Kyle MacLachlan, who revisits his lead role as unorthodox FBI special Agent Dale Cooper, also has remained mum on what Coop’s beat will be. Is there a new murder? is java-loving Agent Cooper still seeing apparitions? Will anyone’s deceased soul find its way into a drawer’s knob? (Yes, that actually happened— along with jazzy dance breaks, soul-stealing supernatural entities in jean jackets and lots of ebullient appreciation of doughnuts and sandwiches.) “I wish I could tell you more,” the actor says with a laugh. “I’m just incredibly excited about what people’s response is going to be.”
Here’s what’s known: It’s now 25 years after the northwest community of Twin Peaks parsed out the demise of homecoming queen Palmer, with her last seven days rumored to provide a crucial clue to the new narrative. Lynch is directing and cowriting—with producing partner Frost—all 18 installments of the limited series. so how was it to be back in the director’s chair? “Close to heaven on earth,” says Lynch. “It’s like a feature film divided into parts, so in order for it to hold together, it should be [made] by the same bunch.”
Also in this issue:
• Plus: NCIS and its harrowing season finale, Amy Brenneman talks some Leftovers, Law & Order: SVU keeps it topical in a two-part season ender, a look at which of your favorite shows may not return for the 2016-17 TV season, diving into the controversy that has emerged out of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, and the best of movies, streaming, sports and more.