Caroline Framke Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticIt takes six episodes for the characters of “Bridgerton” Season 2 to acknowledge the obvious. Ever since they first laid eyes on each other, Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and formidable newcomer Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley of “Sex Education”) have shared such overwhelming sexual tension that most everyone in the same room can feel its vibrations of longing.

Caroline Framke Chief TV Critic“Life & Beth,” Amy Schumer’s new show for Hulu, unfolds in three distinct acts. The first sees Beth (Schumer) as a wine salesperson in Manhattan who’s quietly miserable with her job and in her relationship to Matt (Kevin Kane), a “New York 8” who treats her like an inconvenient afterthought.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticThe most interesting thing about the new comedy “Welcome to Flatch” just might be the way in which Fox is rolling it out. While the pilot episode will premiere March 17 on the broadcast network before airing weekly, the first seven (7!) episodes will also be available to stream on FoxNow and Hulu earlier that same day, thus giving curious viewers a chance to marathon half the season well before those who keep tuning in the traditional way.It might seem an odd approach at first glance, but the vast majority of comedies have always needed a few episodes to figure out the particular rhythms of their dialogue and cast chemistry — something “Welcome to Flatch” director Paul Feig knows well enough, having come in to “The Office” at the beginning of Season 2, right as the eventual smash hit was really beginning to gel.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticIt isn’t the fault of “Halo,” the TV series adaptation finally premiering March 24 on Paramount Plus after years stuck in development hell, that it comes on the heels of a plethora of TV and streaming options that look and feel similar enough to lessen its ability to shock and awe. From “The Mandalorian” (Disney Plus), to “Matrix: Resurrections” (HBO Max), to “Foundation” (Apple TV Plus), there are already plenty of big budget science fiction epics onscreen taking on the same themes as “Halo” (written for TV by Kyle Killen and Steven Kane, and produced in part by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television).

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeABC’s breakout comedy hit “Abbott Elementary” will be back for another school year. The Alphabet net confirmed on Monday that the critically acclaimed workplace laffer, from Warner Bros.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticAs TV expands beyond its traditional borders and attracts talent that would otherwise typically stick to films, the troubling trend of people describing their shows as “a [x]-hour movie” refuses to die. It’s never quite clear what they mean, but for whatever reason, this inherent snobbery about the medium of television persists from some of the most prominent people making it.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticThe blunt opening title card of “Shining Vale” feels like a test: “Women are twice as likely as men to suffer from depression,” it reads, seeming to signal the beginning of a clunky show about Women and Depression — at least until the next sentence appears onscreen. “Women are also twice as likely to be possessed by a demon,” it says, a immediate and deliberate wink of self-awareness at an audience that might’ve already tried to write the show off.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticA few episodes into “Our Flag Means Death,” aristocrat turned pirate ship captain Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) admires his spoils with a frisson of glee. “Why can’t one be a gentleman and a pirate?” he muses aloud to no one in particular, before deciding to embrace that inherent contradiction as his new moniker.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticTwo long years after Netflix first dropped its “Tiger King” docuseries, the first scripted stab at retelling the wild story of warring big cat enthusiasts Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin has landed, as was inevitable. “Joe vs. Carole,” premiering March 3 on Peacock, stars John Cameron Mitchell and Kate McKinnon as Joe and Carole as they vow to take the other down.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticDo you have to have watched the History Channel’s “Vikings” series in order to fully appreciate “Vikings: Valhalla”? For this newcomer, at least, the answer is…well, yes and no.The eight-episode season of “Valhalla,” which dropped on Netflix on Feb. 25, takes place 125 years after the events of the original “Vikings” series, with Christianity taking over Norse traditions and England’s power on the rise.

Caroline Framke Chief TV Critic“The Dropout” knows what it has in Elizabeth Holmes, the real-life enigma who managed to con the biggest power players in Silicon Valley and beyond that she, and she alone, was the future of technology in health care. With her wide-set eyes and impossibly husky voice, Holmes emerged from the pack of bland bros in Patagonia vests as the kind of uniquely, perversely compelling figure that Hollywood has never been able to resist for long.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticKnowing that Netflix’s “Cat Burglar” was created by Charlie Brooker of “Black Mirror,” and that the “Black Mirror” take on a choose-your-own-adventure episode (2018’s “Bandersnatch“) represents one of that show’s biggest horrors, I kept waiting for “Cat Burglar” (out today on Netflix) to take some terrible turn of existential dread. But after playing through several “Cat Burglar” scenarios, the opposite proved true.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticSay this for “The Endgame”: It knows what it has in Morena Bacarrin, an actor so immediately telegenic that making sure she has everyone’s attention is as simple as her walking into a room. As notorious mastermind Elena Federova, Baccarin commands her every scene in NBC’s newest drama with a sly grin and slightly raised eyebrow that usually spells disaster for those trying to test her.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticWhen I say it took me a few episodes to get into a show, it usually means that the show itself needed a few episodes to figure its world out before it was able to draw me into it. When I say that about “Severance,” though, it’s because the beginning of the show’s first season is as unnerving as it is bleak.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticBy the time “Space Force” premiered in 2020, it already felt outdated. Even with a starry cast including Steve Carell and John Malkovich, and all the money a Netflix greenlight can afford, its soft jokes about a Trumpian president run amok landed with barely any impact. Carell, who co-created “Space Force” with “The Office” producer Greg Daniels, once played one of the most famous bosses in TV history.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticWhen I sat down to write a piece about TV’s hottest couple (happy Valentine’s Day!), I never anticipated that I’d be doing so for a pair of manipulative robber barons with Cheshire cat grins and ambitions as deep as their wallets. But isn’t that what they say about love, that it’ll find you when you least expect it? And so here I am, ready to declare my allegiance to Mr. and Mrs.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticAs has become Olympics tradition, NBC has spent every night of its primetime coverage unveiling the stories of top U.S. athletes like it’s selling a weepy drama about their lives. Figure skater Nathan Chen came to Beijing to banish bad memories of his last botched Olympics, the humiliating clip of which NBC will whip out at a moment’s notice to underline his plight.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticNo matter what it turned out to actually be, “Bel-Air” was always going to raise some eyebrows by its premise alone. As every network and streaming service scrambles to make the best (or at least most) use of their in-house IP, a grim reboot of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” for Peacock sounds like something ripped straight from a “30 Rock” joke about NBC trying to make it 1990 again through science or magic.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticWhen “Inventing Anna” taps into what made New York City scammer Anna Delvey (née Anna Sorokin) such a fascinating flashpoint, it’s easy to get sucked into its orbit. When it gives its actors enough meat to sink their teeth into, it can be as fun a distraction as Anna’s wilder nights were for the various sidekicks she picked up along her way to true notoriety.

Wilson Chapman editorFans of Sally Rooney’s debut novel “Conversations With Friends” won’t be disappointed with the steamy trailer for the BBC/Hulu series adaptation.The series, which premieres on BBC Three and Hulu in May, follows Frances (Alison Oliver), a vulnerable college student living in Dublin who is best friends with her ex-girlfriend Bobbi (Sasha Lane). At a spoken word poetry event, the two meet Melissa (Jemima Kirke), a writer, and her husband Nick (Joe Alwyn), an actor.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticChristine Baranski’s career is so vast and varied — from starring roles in “The Good Wife” and its spinoff “The Good Fight,” to spending decades in New York City theater, to stealing scenes as the “Mamma Mia” franchise’s resident siren — that it’s genuinely shocking when she points out that she’s never been in an onscreen period piece “with wigs, corsets, language, the whole thing.”HBO’s “The Gilded Age,” a glamorous new post-Civil War era drama from “Downton Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes, embodies that “whole thing” and then some. So when Fellowes reached out to offer Baranski a part that occupies what many “Downton” fans will recognize as the Dowager Countess role (i.e.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticTwo hours of parading nations later, IOC president Thomas Bach stood on the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony stage and did his best to justify the Olympic ideal in 2022, a year more surreal than most. “Division, conflict, and mistrust are on the rise,” Bach said.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticEvery episode of “Murderville” is essentially like a murder mystery dinner party, except there’s only one person actually playing. Based on the BBC3 series “Murder in Successville,” the new Netflix comedy throws celebrity guests headlong into solving cases alongside loose cannon detective Terry Seattle, played by Will Arnett.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticSPOILER ALERT: This review includes some spoilers for Netflix’s “All of Us Are Dead,” which premiered Friday, January 28.As the last, desperate teen survivors in “All of Us Are Dead” do their best to stay alive through a zombie apocalypse, hoping beyond hope that adults are coming to rescue them, it takes a full day of horrors to make them realize that they’re on their own. With their high school labeled Ground Zero for the escalating outbreak, the students are left for dead (or, as is the case with zombies, something in between).

Caroline Framke Chief TV Critic“The Afterparty” isn’t exactly subtle about its conceit. The new Apple TV Plus comedy opens with Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) telling a room full of suspects that “we’re all stars of our own movie — the same thing could happen, but you see it in a different way.” In order to solve the murder of their obnoxious classmate Xavier (Dave Franco), she says, they’ll each have to tell her their version of how their ill-fated high school reunion went down — or, in an even more blunt line, that she wants to hear their “mind-movie.”Each subsequent episode of “The Afterparty” features a different character retelling the same night in a way that lets creator and director Chris Miller take on a different genre each time.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticHalfway through the pilot of “Astrid and Lilly Save the World,” best friends Astrid (Jana Morrison) and Lilly (Samanatha Aucoin) stare down a mysterious stranger (Oliver Renaud) with awe and suspicion. “I’m your guide,” he insists.

Caroline Framke Chief TV Critic“Promised Land,” Matt Lopez’s new ABC drama, makes the most of its 44 minute runtime. Barely a scene goes by without a reveal, or at least a dramatic music cue hinting at a reveal soon to come.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticHaving been in the spotlight the vast majority of her life, both onscreen as an actor and offscreen as a Hollywood cautionary tale, Evan Rachel Wood understands how media works. She sees the potential of its manipulation, and how the consequences can careen out of control.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticBy the time New York Magazine published its thorough and extremely damning new piece on how Joss Whedon and his entertainment empire fell apart, I couldn’t summon much more than an exhausted sigh. After years of loving his work, followed by years of reconsidering everything I knew about it within the context of the serious allegations against him, Whedon’s downfall in my own world was so swift and complete that I couldn’t stomach the idea of reopening that door at all.Joss Whedon’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is the reason I first started thinking critically about television.