These are not your parents’ Smiths

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This article was published 27/01/2024 (960 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Greatest Night in Pop (documentary premières Monday on Netflix)

There are two groups of viewers for this music doc: those of us who coo about the halcyon days of MuchMusic and could sing in our sleep the supergroup recording of We Are the World, and those who, like a young colleague, shook her head when I asked if she knew the song (which only encouraged me to sing a few lines, for which I apologize).

This follows the making of the 1985 song that Harry Belafonte pitched to Lionel Richie as “some kind of a song for famine relief in Africa,” in the spirit of the same year’s Canadian project, Tears Are Not Enough, and the previous year’s Bob Geldof/Midge Ure project Do They Know It’s Christmas?, all for Ethiopia.

Ego flares and feel-good moments abound as 40-plus stars try to work as a team, which included Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Diana Ross, Ray Charles, Cyndi Lauper, Dionne Warwick, Waylan Jennings, the Pointer Sisters and — hilariously featured in the trailer, looking back — Huey Lewis and Bruce Springsteen.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (series premières Friday, Feb. 2 on Prime Video)

Donald Glover (Community, Atlanta, Solo) and Maya Erskine (PEN15, Obi-Wan Kenobi) are not re-creating the roles of Brangelina’s 2005 movie of the same name. The latter was about a couple who discover they are assassins, while the former is about two strangers who assume the cover of marriage in their new spy jobs.

I’m glad about that because any return to Pitt and Jolie makes me want to cross myself and knock back three martinis, which would be a waste of olives.

Fortunately, this new storyline has its own weight, created by Glover and Atlanta writer Francesca Sloane. So does this arranged marriage work? More importantly, can it keep our heroes alive? Glover cannot fail and Erskine’s eye-rolling faux cool is irresistible. Fingers crossed.

Among those filling out the background are John Turturro, Sarah Paulson, Paul Dano and Alexander Skarsgård.

 

Curb Your Enthusiasm (Season 12 premières at 11:05 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 4 on HBO and Crave)

Do we believe Larry David that this 10-episode season will be the last for the series that “fictionalizes” the writer/producer/Seinfeld co-creator/actor’s life? The press release quotes him saying, “I bid you farewell” and directs anyone who wants to keep in touch to “reach me at Doctors Without Borders.”

I say, nice try Larry, and look forward to more fresh episodes about this self-described “person who hates people and yet had to be amongst them.” Maybe a little bit of denial? Guilty.

Joining Larry in this season will be Jeff Garlin, Susie Essman, Cheryl Hines, J.B. Smoove, Richard Lewis, Ted Danson, Vince Vaughn, Tracey Ullman, Daniel Levy, Vince Vaughn and Sean Hayes.

 

Abbott Elementary (Season 3 premières at 8 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 7 on ABC and Global)

Hot off creator/star Quinta Brunson’s Emmy for best lead actor in a comedy series (the fourth for Abbott Elementary), this mockumentary set in a Philadelphia public school returns with a super-sized two-part episode called Career Day.

Cue chaos and Brunson’s perpetually optimistic Grade 2 teacher Janine smiling as hard as she can directly into the camera and our hearts.

 

One Day (series premières Thursday, Feb. 8 on Netflix)

Tissues at the ready? The olds among us might remember the schmaltzy-sweet 1978 film Same Time, Next Year in which Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn play lovers who limit their philandering to once a year.

Fast-forward to this similarly themed new British-made series.

Dex (White Lotus’s Leo Woodall) and Em (Ambika Mod of This Is Going to Hurt) speak for the first time at their 1988 graduation party and, after going their separate ways, check in once a year thereafter across Scotland, England, France and Greece. Based on the novel by David Nicholls.

And if that all sounds screen-familiar, it was a so-so movie with Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway back in 2011.

Broadcast dates subject to change. Questions, comments to denise.duguay@winnipegfreepress.com.