Fall TV Preview

Fall TV preview: 8 new shows worth checking out for a Super Fun Night

Fall TV season kicked off last week, bringing with it a plethora of programs with which to fill your DVR. While some of TV’s latest offerings aren’t worth your time, others will bring back some of our favorite actors to the small screen. Here’s our guide to some of what's new this fall, so clear your DVR and get ready to spend a night on the couch. This TV ain’t gonna watch itself.

The Blacklist

Mondays, NBC, 9/8c

Eighties dirtbag James Spader returns to TV in this crime thriller that critics are hailing as “the best new show of the season.” For decades, ex-government agent Raymond "Red" Reddington (Spader) has been one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives. Now, he's mysteriously surrendered to the FBI with an explosive offer: Red will help catch terrorist Ranko Zamani under the condition that he speaks only to Elizabeth "Liz" Keen, an FBI profiler fresh out of Quantico.

Mom

Mondays, CBS, 9:30/8:30c

West Wing vet Allison Janney is trading in her power suits for a new role — motherhood. She joins the sometimes-funny Anna Faris in this new comedy from showrunner Chuck Lorre (Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory). Faris is a newly sober single mom raising two children in a world full of temptations and pitfalls, with Janney starring as her critical, estranged mother. If you’re game for a laugh-track, tune in. But don’t expect Emmy-winning fare here.

Brooklyn 99

Tuesdays, FOX, 8:30/7:30c

Andy Samberg! The goofy Lonely Island-er raised eyebrows when he left his cushy Saturday Night Live gig for television, but I’m happy to report that his decision wasn’t in vain. He joins other such indie comedy names as Joe LoTruglio (Superbad) and Chelsea Perretti (Parks and Recreation, Louie) in this cop comedy, wherein Samberg stars as all-star Detective Jake Peralta, a success story who doesn’t want to follow the rules.

The Goldbergs

Tuesdays, ABC, 9/8c

Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions brings this '80s set comedy, which stars comedy all-stars Wendi McLendon-Covey (Bridesmaids) and Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm) matriarch and patriarch of the Goldberg family. The 1980s were the wonder years for geeky 11-year-old Adam (Sean Giambrone), and he faced them armed with a video camera to capture all the crazy. In the same vein as The Wonder Years and Freaks and Geeks, both of which captured audiences’ hearts, this nostalgic comedy could have legs. Maybe.

Trophy Wife

Wednesdays, ABC, 9:30/8:30c

Malin Ackerman stars as Kate, former party girl turned third wife to Pete, played Bradley Whitford (another West Wing alum). After a wild night at a karaoke bar, she falls into his arms, and a year later is begrudgingly welcomed into a new family, complete with two ex-wives and three stepchildren. The star quality of the show’s cast is enough to bring viewers, so this is worth a shot.

Back in the Game

Wednesdays, ABC, 8:30/7:30c

Maggie Lawson (Psych) stars as Terry, an all-star softball player who returns home after her marriage ends, moving in with her estranged father, played by James Caan. It’s a story we’ve heard before (think Clint Eastwood movie plot), but the cast’s chemistry is at least palpable.

Super Fun Night

Wednesdays, ABC, 9:30/8:30

After her hysterical turn in this year’s Pitch Perfect, it seems the world is eager to see more of Rebel Wilson. This comedy hasn’t been without its pitfalls — another network reportedly passed on the initial pilot — but those just looking for Wilson’s signature comedic style should not be disappointed. Wilson stars as Kimmie Boubier, who, with her two best friends, has a standing date every Friday night for the last 13 years. Trouble ensues when she meets a suitor (surprise, surprise) who causes Friday Night Fun Night to take a backseat. Think Never Been Kissed goes to New Zealand.

The Michael J. Fox Show

Thursdays, NBC 9/8c

Michael J. Fox makes his long-awaited return to TV with this semiautobiographical show, in which he stars as Mike Henry, one of New York's favorite news anchors, who has to put his career on hold in order to spend time with his family and focus on his Parkinson's disease diagnosis. The story picks up after his kids are grown and he's looking to get back to work. Fans of Fox are sure to be pleased, and Breaking Bad fans can take solace in the fact that Marie finally moves on from Hank (Betsy Brandt stars as Fox’s wife).

There you have it. Of course some of your old favorites will be back, some will soon be ending (RIP, Breaking Bad), and some we’ll have to wait for forever (Mad Men, ugh). But at least fall will bring some opportunities to find a new favorite.

Rebel Wilson stars in Super Fun Night.

Courtesy photo

Rebel Wilson stars in Super Fun Night.

unspecified

Movie Review

Star-filled pickleball comedy The Dink aces on Apple TV+

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+

Mary Steenburgen and Jake Johnson in The Dink.

While the sport of pickleball was invented way back in the 1960s, it has exploded in popularity in the 2020s. It was only a matter of time before someone figured out a way to make a movie about the craze, and a comedy like the new Apple TV film The Dink provides the best way to honor and make fun of the divisive sport at the same time.

Dusty Boyd (Jake Johnson), aka The Hammer, is a former tennis phenom who’s now working as an instructor at a club owned by his dad, Chuck (Ed Harris). While the two don’t always see eye-to-eye, they have a mutual hatred for pickleball, which they have begrudgingly allowed on the property by giving it the worst court.

Dusty is hoping to stop all future pickleball expansion by winning a one-on-one grudge match, but when he injures his wrist, he’s given a prescription of pickleball as a form of rehab. Older women like Candace (Mary Steenburgen) are the only people he can find to play with, and despite his disdain for the sport, he soon falls prey to its low-key charms.

Directed by Josh Greenbaum (Will & Harper) and written by Sean Clements, the film is probably the best advertisement pickleball will ever have. Dusty’s introduction to the sport serves as a lighthearted tutorial for the uninitiated while still getting in some nice digs at its expense. The other players — Candace, Gail (Cleo King), and Judy (Lynn Marie Stewart) — are equally welcoming and critical of Dusty, who initially has trouble adjusting to the game’s different rules.

The film’s approach to the story is silly but never stupid. Dusty is a blowhard, but he’s also able to admit when he’s wrong, especially when Candace introduces him to multiple things he had never considered before. A long-standing feud between Dusty and Andy Roddick provides more than just a goofy cameo for the real-life tennis star. The film also pushes right to the edge of being over-the-top before pulling back, allowing it to keep a semblance of reality to it.

Clements’ story follows a tried-and-true formula, making the film very predictable but enjoyably so. Where it earns its comedy credentials is in its finer details, like Dusty’s love for his 1999 Buick LeSabre with under 200,000 miles on it, his trunk full of old VHS tapes, or his interactions with his assistant PJ (Aaron Chen), who manages to be the comic relief in an already funny film.

Johnson, probably best known for starring in the sitcom New Girl in the 2010s, has the right amount of smarm and niceness to pull off the role, letting viewers laugh at and root for him at the same time. The film is full of comedy all-stars in small roles like Oswalt, Chris Parnell, and Ben Stiller, but Harris steals everyone’s thunder. The line readings by the four-time Oscar nominee give an extra punch to his character’s jokes, especially one that hints at the sordid history of the tennis club.

It’s a shame that The Dink is only playing on a streaming service as there’s a dearth of good comedies like this in movie theaters. With a solid joke-telling approach, a respect for its subject matter, and a cast who all play off each other well, this is a film that deserves to be seen by more than just those with an Apple TV subscription.

---

The Dink is now streaming on Apple TV.

movies sports pickleball film