Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
STARS ON SCREEN
Wet your whistle: Grab a drink — this history lesson is anything but dry. Comedy Central’s “Drunk History” returns for a fifth season Tuesday, Jan. 23, with more tipsy takes on the past, and the lineup of guest stars is impressive, to say the least.
For those not initiated, fair warning: “Drunk History” isn’t meant for toddlers or teetotalers. As the show’s name makes clear, the series features some pretty heavy drinking. In each episode, a comedian gets him or herself a wee bit inebriated and then recounts a famous event from history in as much detail as their not-fully-lucid brains can muster.
But that isn’t even the funniest part. The drunken retellings are performed by a group of actors, who even lip sync any dialogue that the narrator happens to slip in, and who take everything said very, very literally.
In addition to its recurring cast that includes Maria Blasucci (“Ghost Girls”), Sarah Burns (‘I Love You, Man,” 2009) and host Derek Waters (“Married to the Kellys”), each episode of “Drunk History” also brings in a number of guest stars to act out the intoxicated re-enactments. Guest stars of seasons past have included Rachel Bilson (“The O.C.”), Elizabeth Olsen (“Captain America: Civil War,” 2016) Chris Parnell (“Suburgatory”) and Liev Schreiber (“Ray Donovan”).
There are really too many guests lined up for the new season to list exhaustively here, but some highlights are singer “Weird Al” Yankovic (“UHF,” 1989), Alexander Skarsgård (“True Blood”), Kirsten Dunst (“Hidden Figures,” 2016), Jane Krakowski (“30 Rock”), Joel McHale (“Community”), Jack Black (“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” 2017), Seth Rogen (“This Is the End,” 2013) and Raven-Symoné (“Raven’s Home”).
That’s a star-studded lineup for a show that started out as a little online series that made it big. The new season of “Drunk History” premieres Tuesday, Jan. 23, on Comedy Central.
Murder, redefined: Get ready for a week of an entirely new type of murder mystery. HBO’s newest miniseries “Mosaic” premieres Monday, Jan. 22, with a new episode airing every night this week and culminating in back-to-back episodes for Friday’s finale.
“Mosaic” comes from acclaimed director Steven Soderbergh (“Ocean’s Eleven,” 2001) and is an experiment in an entirely new form of storytelling. In fact, while this may be its television premiere, it was actually released last year — as a mobile app.
Sharon Stone (“Basic Instinct,” 1992) headlines the cast as children’s book author Olivia Lake in this interactive program-turned-TV-show. In the original app, the viewer is presented with a murder and can then watch the plot from whichever perspective he or she chooses, browsing through more than seven hours of video content on a quest to learn the truth, with flashbacks and flash forwards, documents and testimonials all available to check it.
It definitely blurs the line between a TV show and a murder mystery, but obviously a show on TV can’t have that sort of interactivity. Instead, HBO has put together the various videos to make a more conventional murder mystery series, with Stone joined on screen by Frederick Weller (“In Plain Sight”), Garrett Hedlund (“TRON: Legacy,” 2010), Jennifer Ferrin (“Hell on Wheels”), Maya Kazan (“The Knick”) and James Ransone (“Treme”).
It’s a murder mystery with a unique origin and plenty of twists. Whether you’ve enjoyed the mobile app or not, “Mosaic” promises to be an enjoyable experience the week of Monday, Jan. 22, on HBO.
No clowning around: It seems that Zach Galifianakis wasn’t clowning around with “Baskets”: the Emmy awardwinning show returns to FX Tuesday, Jan. 23, and that’s no joke.
The black comedy stars “The Hangover” (2009) actor in dual lead roles as twin brothers Chip and Dale Baskets. Back in the first season, Chip’s dreams were shattered when he flunked out of a prestigious French clowning school, but he managed to piece some semblance of them back together when he landed a job as a rodeo clown back home in America.
Martha Kelly (“Spider-Man: Homecoming,” 2017) stars as Martha, Dale’s love interest (and chief cause of his marriage crumbling), and Louie Anderson (“Life with Louie”) plays Chip and Dale’s long-suffering mother Christine — a role that netted the actor an Outstanding Supporting Actor award at the 2016 Emmys.
While it hasn’t been a huge ratings success over its first two seasons, “Baskets” has earned a reputation as a feisty little show with a loyal fanbase, and the Emmy award surely didn’t hurt with the decision to renew the series for another year. Last season, after Chip’s life at the rodeo fell apart so spectacularly, he started riding the rails hobo-style, heading down a path that eventually came full circle and brought him right back to the clown life.
What does the clowning life have in store for Chip and his family this season? Find out when “Baskets” returns Tuesday, Jan. 23, on FX.