‘No Exit,’ ‘Reno 911’ and a ‘Madea’
Is COVID confinement entertaining? Streaming on Hulu, the 2022 drama “No Exit” has nothing to do with the pandemic, but it certainly reflects our current sense of claustrophobia and fear.
Stuck in a rehab center she entered to avoid jail time, Darby Thorne (Havana Rose Liu) receives news of her mother’s hospitalization. Throwing caution, common sense and legality to the wind, she busts out of rehab and makes her way to Salt Lake City, only to be caught in a paralyzing blizzard. As the highway closes, she’s stuck yet again, in a rest stop with a handful of strangers.
Nightmares continue when she walks out into the parking lot to use her cellphone, only to discover a terrified child stuck in a parked van, belonging to one of her fellow stranded travelers. How does she save the child? And how does she engage these strangers to discover the identity of the kidnapper? It starts with a game of poker.
And two of the players, Ed (Dennis Haysbert, “24”) and Sandi (Dale Dickey) appear to be holding their cards close to the vest.
› Roku has expanded from being known only as a streaming device to becoming a streaming channel bundling a variety of programming and now offering and developing shows and movies of its own.
The venerable police mockumentary series “Reno 911!” — which originated on Comedy Central — streams a new season of 20-minute episodes on Roku, “Reno 911! Defunded.”
› Speaking of taking series developed elsewhere, Netflix streams “Vikings: Valhalla,” a sequel to the long-running History Channel epic drama. Events take place a century after the days of Ragnar and his sons and involve some of the most celebrated Norsemen in history, including Leif Eriksson whose vessels reportedly reached North America.
› Teams compete in the new educational game show “Brain Games: On the Road” (8 p.m., National Geographic, TV-PG), unfolding with six consecutive episodes.
› Employing a wellworn idea, the Brazilian series “Back to 15,” streaming on Netflix, follows Anita (Maisa Silva), a troubled 30-year-old woman who is magically transported to her mid-teen stage to offer advice and meddle in the lives of girls half her “real” age.
› A great-grandson’s college graduation becomes an excuse for a larger-than-life personality to gather around her family in the 2022 comedy movie “Tyler Perry’s A Madea Homecoming,” streaming on Netflix. This is the 12th movie to feature the Madea character.
› A vintage “American Masters” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings) presents “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool.” In a 2020 review, I described it as “a visual discography, an appreciation of his musical genius from the time he collaborated with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie as a mere teenager, through his many stylistic evolutions and adamantly burnt bridges that would delight and infuriate audiences and critics over five decades.”