Mike Hale

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Mike Hale

"Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light" picks up where "Wolf Hall" left off, amid the gruesome beheading of Anne Boleyn in 1536, which we get to see this time in even more gruesome detail. In real life, however, there has been an unusually long gap between series and sequel. It has been 10 years since the release of "Wolf Hall," based on the first two novels in Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell series.

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Mike Hale

After New York and Los Angeles, what is the third city of American crime drama? Boston, Chicago and San Francisco can all make claims, and many might choose Baltimore for "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "The Wire." But lately, another city has been moving up the charts: Philadelphia is suddenly a hot location for moody stories about drugs and murder.

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Mike Hale

The United States' relationships with the rest of the world's nations are fluid right now, but one thing is for sure: We keep importing their television shows. Here are some recent additions to what appears to be an increasingly large trade imbalance, at least when it comes to scripted series. With "Bluey" on a hiatus, this cheerfully mesmerizing South Korean cartoon - it's like a crackerjack action blockbuster for toddlers - can fill the animated-puppies vacuum.

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Mike Hale

What makes Moro's fate such prime material for dramatization, though, are its elements of mystery and imponderability and its hints of conspiracy, as murky today as they were four decades ago. Why did Moro's own government - of which he would have become president later that year - refuse to negotiate for his release? Why did the Red Brigades finally kill him, knowing it probably would be disastrous for their cause?

Jan 19, 2025 | startribune.com | Mike Hale

In the catalog of the modern Western, a lot of space is given to stories focused on what is assumed to have been the sheer miserableness of life on the frontier. The eye-catching Netflix miniseries "American Primeval" contains that in its six episodes, including a particular fetish for bloody animal carcasses, which are hung, skinned, drained and boiled with regularity. The odors are unimaginable. Mark L.