Narberth’s Knight still a star even without ‘American Idol’
Narberth’s Louis Knight took seventh place and was eliminated before the finals on last week’s “American Idol,” seen locally on Channel 6.
The important thing to remember is Knight was touted as a contender and came high enough in a talented field to make a name for himself among top people in the music industry. He also developed an audience and a following. It may not have been big enough to keep Louis in the competition to the end, but when you consider the viewership of a national television show, it’s certainly big enough to make “Idol” watchers eager to see him, attend performances, and remain on the lookout for albums.
The “Idol” winner for this season was Just Sam who, among her selections sang first “Idol” Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger” and a rousing version of “Rise Up.”
Knight is more drawn to complex material with tricky musical phrases that allow him to show the range of his voice and give lyrics some emotion. He auditioned for “Idol” with a tune he wrote and did hs last performance from his backyard in Montgomery County.
The things I said about television allowing Knight to build a fan base applies to Micah Iverson, Camm Wess, Thunderstorm Artis, and the others who ranked behind “The Voice” winner, Todd Tilghman from Blake Shelton’s team, also crowned last week.
I keep closer tabs on “The Voice,” and I can vouch for what a tough decision it must have been to choose Tilghman over the others mentioned.
Like Just Sam, he earned his place in the spotlight. To come out ahead of this season’s “Voice” pack took some doing, and I was always impressed with how Tilghman, less flashy and personal than Artis or Wess, would pull through and gain equal favor with a simple style that surprised with its sudden and deliberate bursts of power.
Best wishes to Louis Knight, Arthur Gunn, Dillon James, Julia Gargano, Camm Wess, Thunderstorm Artis, Micah Iverson, Michael Williams, and other “Idol” and “Voice” participants who could easily be entertaining us well for years.
McNamara’s done it again with the Hulu series ‘The Great’
This week, I binged one show with abandon.
While I continue to grant “best” honors to Hulu’s “Mrs. America” and find Netflix’s “The Eddy” and “Belgravia” interesting, the program that had me laughing and admiring its surehanded mixture of guffaw-worthy comedy and viciously delicious palace intrigue is back at Hulu, “The Great.”
Tony McNamara, who wrote the starkly original and constantly funny 2018 movie, “The Favourite,” is the authorial brain behind “The Great.” His style transfers well from compact film to long-form television, and he applies the same prodigious lampooning talents he brought to Britain’s Queen Anne’s early 18th century court to the more disorganized, less formal milieu of Catherine the Great’s Russia later in the same century.
Catherine is a newcomer to the Russian aristocracy when she arrives as a prize bride, bought by the young Emperor at the advice of his Orthodox prelate, to make her father in Austria solvent.
Catherine is full of romance and fantasy. She sees her role as Empress as one that will be fun and filled with elegance and camaraderie and spirit.
She is disappointed. Her husband is a lout, who wants Catherine to bear children but shows no signs of romantic interest, let alone love. He is also a boor who prefers to game and hunt and create pranks that put others in embarrassing situations while she is a reader and thinker who wants to reform Russia and help its people. Her romance is tempered with purpose. The emperor’s is tempered with nothing. Well, maybe alcohol, drugs, and games with actual weapons.
McNamara deftly goes back and forth between the follies of the court and the vapid nature of its inhabitants and Catherine’s superior, yet not stuffy or condescending, ways. Comedy can be low to the point of slapstick and rimshot one-liners or elevated to the point of smart, biting wit. So much happens to entertain, it’s difficult to choose one instance. I just sit in wait of the next giggle or the next sharp commentary on government and diplomacy McNamara incidentally offers.
“The Great’s” cast is uniformly excellent. Elle Fanning should vie for, and may be the front runner for, Best Actress in a Comedy for her cunning portrayal of Catherine. Phoebe Fox is acidly adept and so perceptive as her lady in waiting, a noble reduced to being a maid. Nicholas Hoult is as beautiful as his character says he is and brilliant as playing the doltish, immature, feckless, yet clever czar, as quick with a comeback as anyone no matter how obtuse he can be about some matters. Sacha Dhawan is droll yet touchingly innocent in his role as a top adviser. Charity Wakefield and Gwilym Lee radiate survival skills as a noble couple with a special role at court. Two reliables from the British stage, Douglas Hodge and Adam Godley are marvelous as a general and a priest.
Kimmel honors Philadelphia nurse
Jimmy Kimmel’s “Healthcare Hero” for last week works for the City of Philadelphia and works with outpatients in the Germantown section.
Natasha Lewis is an R.N. says she’s been a nurse for 10 years but that recent months have been particularly challenging in the district she serves because of the coronavirus.
Kimmel surprised Lewis by introducing her, via Zoom, to one of her favorites, comedian and actor Kevin Hart, one of the talk show host’s guests that night. Hart and Lewis went out of their ways to tell the other how much he or she appreciates the work they do and contribution they make.
A different parade
Channel 6 airs the National Memorial Day Parade Monday at 2 p.m.
It won’t be a traditional parade, with bands and floats streaming down Washington, D.C.’s Constitution Avenue, as in past years.
For 2020, because of the COVID crisis, the parade’s presenter, the American Veterans Center, has assembled a special, original television program called “America Stands Tall” that features the story of our shared history via narrative pieces and celebrity appearances. The program will included moments from past Memorial Day Parades, historical re-enactors, active duty military personnel, musical performances, and greetings from celebrities.
The parade hosts are Tamron Hall, who has Philadelphia roots and is host of a talk show that airs at 10 a.m. weekdays, and in late-night, on Channel 6, and Anderson from ABC’s “black-ish” and “To Tell the Truth.” Making guest appearances are Kristin Chenoweth, Gary Sinise, Matthew McConaughey, Marcia Gay Harden, Howie Mandel, Lester Holt, and Bear Grylls.
Monday brings several Memorial Day treats.
At 9:30 a.m., AMC airs Steven Spielberg’s 1998 war classic with Tom Hanks, “Saving Private Ryan.”
Comedy Central provides a marathon of “The Office” from
9 a.m. to midnight. During the same hours, FXX offers a “Simpsons” marathon while SyFy runs Harry Potter movies from 11:30 a.m. to midnight, and TNT presents a marathon of movies featuring DC Comics superheroes from
11 a.m. to midnight.
Of course, Turner Movie Classics, with a vault full of war classics, has been playing their treasures since Saturday. Today’s fare includes Steve McQueen in “The Great Escape” at 11:15 a.m., Lee Marvin and a top-notch cast in “The Dirty Dozen” at 2:15 p.m., Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Harold Russell, and Teresa Wright in “The Best Year of Our Lives” at 8 p.m., and Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, and Bruce Dern in “Coming Home” at 1 a.m. March, Russell, Fonda, and Voight each earned on Oscar for his or her performance in their respective movies.
One of the great World War II pictures of all time, “From Here to Eternity” with Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra, Ernest Borgnine, and Donna Reed plays on TCM later in the week, at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.