Television

This review contains spoilers for the novel “The Three-Body Problem” and the television series “Three-Body.” There’s no way around it. The highly acclaimed trilogy of Chinese science-fiction novels collectively known as “Three-Body,” in which Earth is threatened with invasion by technologically superior aliens, is generally understood to reflect historical Chinese anxieties about Western domination. Which makes it a little amusing that, 17 years after the story was first serialized, the books are about to get more attention than ever because of a big-budget American adaptation, due later this year on Netflix . Comments about appropriation and cultural sensitivity will start to pour in minutes after the episodes are posted. In the meantime, little attention is being paid in the United States to an ambitious Chinese series, “Three-Body,” that has beaten Netflix’s “3 Body Problem” to the screen. No trade barriers or worries about state secrets here: The 30 episodes of … [Read more...] about ‘Three-Body’ Review: A Chinese Series Beats Netflix to the Screen

HOTSHOT TV animators used to knock on Disney Channel’s door very infrequently. For a generation of cartoonists raised on “The Simpsons,” Disney had a reputation as too worried about protecting its brand to have fun. The cool kids wanted to work elsewhere. How the cartoon tides turn. Disney hired some daring young managers — notably Mike Moon, known for Cartoon Network’s “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends” — and took a chance on a silly show everyone else turned down: “ Phineas and Ferb .” It became a smash hit, and the Disney Channel was in the game. Which brings us to Alex Hirsch, 27. As a student at the California Institute of the Arts, he was talented enough to get noticed by Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chief executive of DreamWorks Animation. (“He called me during class and was, like, ‘Hey, buddy!’ ” Mr. Hirsch said.) But Mr. Hirsch couldn’t be swayed: He wanted to work for Disney’s TV shop. The result is Mr. Hirsch’s spooky and flatly bizarre “ Gravity Falls ,” which … [Read more...] about An Undercurrent of Darkness, Even at Disney

NEW YORK (AP) — The first English-language television broadcast of the U.S. men’s soccer team in its new media contract was seen by 416,000 viewers on TNT. Last Saturday’s 0-0 exhibition draw against Colombia, which started at 7:37 p.m. EST, was seen by 540,000 in its Spanish-language broadcast on Telemundo for a combined audience of 956,000, according to Nielsen. The first men’s game under the contract was a 2-1 friendly loss to Serbia on Jan. 25 .It started at 10:07 p.m. EST and was streamed with English commentary on HBO Max, which did not release viewer figures. That match was seen by 76,000 on Telemundo and by 25,000 on Telexitos, like Telemundo a division of Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, for a total of 101,000. The U.S. Soccer Federation started eight-year broadcast agreements last month with Warner Bros. Discovery Sports for English-language rights and Telemundo for Spanish-language rights. ESPN and Fox had shared the USSF's English-language rights from 2014 through … [Read more...] about US men’s soccer debut game on TNT draws 416,000 viewers

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music and video game platforms this week. MOVIES — Shaunak Sen’s “All That Breathes,” one of the more transfixing and beautiful documentaries of the past year, is about a pair of brothers in New Dehli who make a makeshift clinic to mend and heal the birds of prey who are increasingly falling to Earth in the pollution-choked Indian capital. The film, nominated for best documentary at the Academy Awards, is a stirring and poetic portrait of ecological urban rescue that begins streaming on HBO Max on Tuesday. (It also premieres on HBO on Tuesday.) Nadeem Shehzad and Mohammad Saud may be amateurs, but they've saved some 20,000 birds. — With Valentine's Day fast approaching, the rom-coms cometh. Two notable ones are on tap this week: “Your Place or Mine” on … [Read more...] about New this week: ‘Your Place or Mine’ and ‘All That Breathes’

See the article in its original context from June 5, 1988 Section Page Buy Reprints View on timesmachine TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. THE PHILOSOPHER GEORGE SANTAYANA was once asked which books young people should read. It didn't matter, he replied, as long as they read the same ones. Generations of Eng. lit. majors in American colleges followed his advice. You started with the Bible, moved briskly through Beowulf and Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton, the 18th-century novel, the Romantics, a few big American books like … [Read more...] about ON CAMPUS: THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS

Wayne C. Booth, one of the pre-eminent literary critics of the second half of the 20th century, whose lifelong study of the art of rhetoric illuminated the means by which authors seduce, cajole and more than occasionally lie to their readers in the service of narrative, died yesterday morning at his home in Chicago. He was 84. The cause was complications of dementia, his daughter Katherine Booth Stevens said. A longtime faculty member of the University of Chicago, he was at his death the George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of English there. His books, which are part of the core curriculum at universities around the world, include "The Rhetoric of Fiction" (University of Chicago, 1961); "A Rhetoric of Irony" (University of Chicago, 1974); and "The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction" (University of California, 1988). His latest book, a memoir titled "My Many Selves," is scheduled to be published next year by Utah State University Press. To many earlier … [Read more...] about Wayne C. Booth, Critic Who Analyzed Rhetoric, Dies at 84