One of my favorite shows of 2024 was “The Newsreader,” a biting Australian series about the TV news business in 1980s Melbourne. I likened it to an Aussie version of the 1987 movie “Broadcast News,” with its winning combination of satire and pathos and a news team obsessed with beating the competition no matter the fallout.

Season 2 picks up a year later, with fledgling anchor Dale Jennings (Sam Reid) now a more assured presence on the nightly “News at Six” broadcast, alongside the more seasoned Helen Norville (Anna Torv).

They are partners both on the air and off, and this juicy tidbit comes up when they appear on the station’s talk show, hosted by a shamelessly cheesy Irishman called Gerry Carroll (Rory Fleck Byrne). Gerry is a great addition to “The Newsreader” ensemble, both charming and likable, but someone who has also sold out at every opportunity possible. He’s the kind of guy who performs a rendition of “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me),” the George Michael and Aretha Franklin duet, surrounded by an array of “Solid Gold”-esque dancers. Unlike his intense colleagues on the news side, everything rolls off his back and he can ad-lib a funny line with little effort.

He also has no problem pandering to the audience, so he tees up Helen and Dale with this doozie: “In 1986, you delivered us all a newsroom romance. In 1987, can we expect a newsroom wedding?” Helen passes the question off to Dale, who pauses awkwardly, then: “Look, we’re just focusing on this critical election that we have ahead of us this year.” Oh, Dale. As much as he’s smoothed out his public persona, he can’t fully mask his inner discomfort. He’s no Gerry.

This season, there’s a new owner who sees their election night coverage as a network branding opportunity. “And our network brand is backyard barbecue,” explains Dale and Helen’s weaselly producer (Chum Ehelepola). The station owner wants the tone to be “relaxed and irreverent.” Helen makes a face: “Are you even listening to yourself?” Helen cannot hide her emotions, except when she’s on the air, and that transformation is always divine.

Dale, though, is more appeasing. And he’s still obsessed with nailing an authoritative on-air persona (as with Season 1, we get to see more of him practicing in front of the mirror; Reid is so funny in these moments). Dale doesn’t want to make waves but to work within the system and keep their bosses happy. That creates tension between him and Helen when she makes some questionable judgment calls and loses her cool during an interview. She can be a dynamo, but someone needs to keep her from going off the rails.

Other complications arise. The secret of Dale’s bisexuality looms like a ticking time bomb when a local gossip writer gets wind of the information. The same goes for Helen’s teenage history of mental illness. There are plenty of people looking to sabotage them individually, and when their relationship begins to fray, it would be inevitable that they turn on each other too. They don’t, and I have so much respect for that storytelling decision.

The ensemble surrounding them is a rich melange of characters who give the newsroom its dysfunctional charm. The sweet but tenacious researcher promoted to producer (Michelle Lim Davidson, whose wardrobe is more late ’70s/early ’80s until she buys herself an effusive peach pantsuit) is now officially in a relationship with the station’s well-meaning but dunderheaded sports anchor (Stephen Peacocke). The news director (William McInnes) remains a blowhard who alienates everyone around him (my one critique of the season is that his tirades have become perhaps too cartoonish) and his secretary (Caroline Lee) is the quietly efficient presence who sees all and knows where the bodies are buried.

Then there’s Helen’s former co-anchor and nemesis (Robert Taylor), who now works for a competitor. His wife (Marg Downey) is one of the more intriguing women on television, a Lady Macbeth-type who is obsessed with appearances and elegantly schemes to advance her husband’s career. She’s also well-practiced at soothing his ego. When he complains about a snafu, she says smoothly: “Honestly darling, it didn’t seem that dramatic because you handled it with such professionalism.” Their adult daughter has returned home and she is struggling, which doesn’t fit with the perfect family image they want to project.

Though set in the ’80s, “The Newsreader” feels timely, especially in the way it portrays journalists wanting to do the right thing when it comes to holding power to account, only to be overruled by corporate bosses. It’s also a show attuned to the smallest details of an actor’s performance, from the way Helen adjusts her hair just so before they go on air, to the smallest facial expressions on Dale’s face as he listens to another man leave a flirty phone message for Helen.

These days, Reid is better known for his performance as Lestat on AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire,” but what he’s doing here is just as layered and complex. It’s quieter. Smaller. Dorkier. It really shows his range as an actor. Dale is hilarious. Dale is heartbreaking. Dale is a work in progress.

Even the show’s writing is delicious. When Gerry makes a subtle pass at Dale, this is how he phrases it: “You strike me as a bit open to … possibilities. It’s a compliment. The best people are.” Pause. “I am.”

Australia’s bicentennial becomes a source of rich comedy, thanks to the beautifully absurd station promo they’re forced to shoot, but it’s also a way for “The Newsreader” to delve into the way the Aboriginal population is rendered invisible in the station’s coverage. (When Helen asks about this, everyone goes silent; it would be so much easier for them if she didn’t bring up these complications.) I wish I could say the show’s depiction of sexism and racism played like a time capsule, but it feels as relevant as ever.

Visually, the show’s palette is a mix of tans and browns, mauves and grays and light blues and cream. Nothing too bright or vibrant. The ’80s details, especially when it comes to wardrobe and hair, are bang on without being over-the-top or camp. It’s a snapshot that feels wonderfully alive and relevant to this moment.

“The Newsreader” Season 2 — 4 stars (out of 4)

Where to watch: AMC+

Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.

Nine movies in, assumptions start to pile up like a precarious Jenga tower that every ounce of originality’s been squeezed out of the lucrative “Alien” franchise Ridley Scott erected. Just burn that thought down. Audacious showrunner Noah Hawley, the upstart who turned the Coen Brothers “Fargo” film into a nervy series, defies the odds and builds upon the mythology of Scott’s durable foundation. He oxygenates it by drawing in themes and characters from “Peter Pan” — that’s right, J.M. Barrie’s hero and his Lost Boy crew who have never grown up.

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The notion of fusing a story about voracious alien monsters with a beloved children’s classic sounds like it would be a disaster. But Hawley is a creative storytelling dervish, and not only does he interweave the two seamlessly but also dives headfirst into thought-provoking moral debates about AI and the unethical practices of tech industry titans who lack a soul and a heart. That gives it a bristling relevance.

FX’s eight-part series does pack in a lot of chewy ideas, but none come at the expense of what an “Alien” series should do: Freak us out and test our gag reflex.

Set in 2120, it hinges on a batch of alien and various mutating specimens who crash-land on Earth in a research vessel that’s owned by one of five corporations that now rule during this Corporate Era — a chillingly plausible schematic.

When the bratty but brilliant CEO of the Prodigy Corporation — the pajama-wearing Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) who lives on a private island named Neverland — catches wind that the Weyland-Yutani corporation craft holds some secret cargo, he smells a profitable entrepreneurial opportunity. “Boy” wants to be No. 1 all the time and has been testing out his latest stunning tech advancement: putting the consciousness of terminally ill kids into the bodies of humanoid robots. He assumes that he and those who work for him — including the maternal but cunning Dame Sylvia (Essie Davis); his lapdog synth (a humanoid robot who is AI); Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant, with a shock of white hair reminiscent of Sting’s in David Lynch’s “Dune”) — can keep these kid hybrids in check. What a fool. “Boy’s” first creation — now named Wendy (Sydney Chandler) — not only holds superpowers but longs to be reunited with her brother Hermit (Alex Lawther) and soon sees that she’s but a pawn in “Boy’s” world. Other members of this synth “Lost Boys (and Girls)” start to question and push back while the only survivor of the crash — Weyland-Yutani employee Morrow (Babou Ceesay) — enters into the mind of Lost Boy Slightly (Adarsh Gourav).

In the foreground and background of all this are gooey, disgusting alien creatures (the special effects compare to any those in any summer Hollywood blockbuster), including an evil, super-smart sheep with many eyes, massive flies spewing acidic goo, scurrying eyeballs and, of course, that toothy alien itself. They become the focal point of a power struggle that puts the series on a path to what we can only hope will be another season. It certainly flings the door open for that.

Hawley’s take on Ridley Scott’s original film boldly continues to shock and surprise throughout as does its cast — specifically Chandler, Blenkin, Olyphant and particularly Gourav, who’s uncanny in channeling a younger kid stuck in the body of someone older. It probably doesn’t hurt that Scott is an executive producer of the series.

But it is Hawley’s astute attention to detail and desire to construct an intricate story that distinguish and make “Alien: Earth” a big step up in quality for the “Alien” series overall. It’s certainly one of the best series I’ve seen this year, and better than the majority of studio blockbusters this summer in theaters.

Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.

‘ALIEN: EARTH’

4 stars out of 4

Created by Noah Hawley

Starring: Samuel Blenkin, Essie Davis, Timothy Olyphant, Sydney Chandler, Babou Ceesay, Adarsh Gourav

When & where: Two episodes available on Hulu and FX; new episode premieres each successive Tuesday on Hulu at 8 p.m. EST and on FX at 8 p.m. PT.

 

By STAN CHOE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are hanging around their record levels on Friday as Wall Street heads toward the finish of another winning week.

The S&P 500 edged down by 0.1% from the all-time high it set the day before, but it’s still on track to close its fourth winning week in the last five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 86 points, or 0.2%, as of 10:10 a.m. Eastern time, and flirting with its record set in December. The Nasdaq composite slipped 0.2%, hurt by losses for tech stocks.

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The U.S. stock market set records this week as expectations built that the Federal Reserve will deliver a cut to interest rates at its next meeting in September. Lower rates can boost investment prices and the economy by making it cheaper for U.S. households and businesses to borrow to buy houses, cars or equipment, but they also risk worsening inflation.

A disappointing report about inflation at the U.S. wholesale level on Thursday made traders pare back bets for coming cuts to interest rates, but they’re still overwhelmingly expecting them. Such anticipation has sent Treasury yields notably lower in the bond market, and they held there following a mixed set of updates on the economy on Friday.

One said shoppers boosted their spending at U.S. retailers last month, as economists expected, while another said that manufacturing in New York state unexpectedly grew. A third said industrial production across the country shrank last month, when economists were looking for modest growth.

Another report suggested sentiment among U.S. consumers is worsening because of worries about inflation, when economists expected to see a slight improvement.

“Overall, consumers are no longer bracing for the worst-case scenario for the economy feared in April,” when President Trump announced his stunning set of worldwide tariffs, according to Joanne Hsu, director of the University of Michigan’s surveys of consumers. “However, consumers continue to expect both inflation and unemployment to deteriorate in the future.”

On Wall Street, UnitedHealth Group jumped 11.4% after famed investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway said it bought nearly 5 million shares of the insurer during the spring, valued at $1.57 billion. Buffett is known for trying to buy good stocks at affordable prices, and UnitedHealth’s halved for the year by the end of July because of a run of struggles.

Berkshire Hathaway’s own stock added 0.1%.

On the losing end of Wall Street was Applied Materials, which fell 11.7% even though it reported better results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The focus was on the company’s forecast for a drop in revenue during the current quarter.

Its products help manufacture semiconductors and advanced displays, and CEO Gary Dickerson pointed to a “dynamic macroeconomic and policy environment, which is creating increased uncertainty and lower visibility in the near term, including for our China business.”

Sandisk fell 3.7% despite reporting a profit for the latest quarter that blew past analysts’ expectations. Investors focused instead on the data storage company’s forecast for profit in the current quarter, which came up short of Wall Street’s.

In stock markets abroad, Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.7% after the government said its economy grew at a better-than-expected pace in the latest quarter.

Stock indexes rose 0.8% in Shanghai but fell 1% in Hong Kong after data showed China’s economy may have slowed in July under pressure from uncertainty surrounding Trump’s tariffs.

“Chinese economic activity slowed across the board in July, with retail sales, fixed asset investment, and value added of industry growth all reaching the lowest levels of the year. After a strong start, several months of cooling momentum suggest that the economy may need further policy support,” ING Economics said in a market commentary.

European stock indexes were mixed ahead of a meeting later in the day between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which could dictate where the war in Ukraine is heading.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was holding at 4.29%, where it was late Thursday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, eased to 3.72% from 3.74%.

AP Writer Teresa Cerojano contributed.

In simplest terms, grilling requires cooking raw food over fire, a constantly shifting and potentially volatile element. Since no protein cooks the same, and vegetables react tenderly to the flames, getting used to the nuances of grilling requires intimate knowledge of the grilling surface itself.

“When you are grilling anything, you’re literally and figuratively playing with fire,” said Daniel Mangin, executive chef of American Elm in Denver. “It’s not about learning how to do it one time. It’s about learning all of the variables that come with it.”

After four years at the helm of American Elm, Mangin has familiarized himself with every square inch of his grill, typical to what you’d find in kitchens across the country: a grated surface over gas-burning flames. He compared its grid to a “weather map” with different hot spots that shift in intensity throughout the night.

His grill is on full blast at all times to keep the coils sizzling. “I never, never, never, never, never mess with the knobs,” he said. Instead, he moves food to different hot spots to regulate how it cooks.

Daniel Mangin, Executive chef and operations director at American Elm, holds a plate of the restaurant’s popular squash cavatelli dish outside the restaurant located at 4132 West 38th Avenue in Denver on May 28, 2025. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)

At Apple Blossom and Bloom, the two restaurants inside the Hyatt Centric hotel downtown, executive chef Amanda Singh uses a gas grill. But she learned her technique on a wood-fire grill during a three-month stint in Marfa, Texas, under the tutelage of Alexandra Gates, a James Beard-recognized chef there. With practice, Singh kept the fire running throughout a nine-course meal for 60 people, she said.

She transferred those skills to The Wolf’s Tailor in Denver and later to Apple Blossom. Creativity and spontaneity fuel the dishes on her menu, as does local produce, including wasabi microgreens from Tall Guy Tiny Greens and carrots grown in local farms.

One of her favorites, though, is the thick, beet-infused lion’s mane mushrooms that she brines overnight in tamari, beet and honey juice. “The vegan option that bleeds,” she calls it. To her, grilling it on her indoor kitchen grill — similar to Mangin’s but half the size — was a no-brainer.

“I put the honey in there, so it’s gonna caramelize,” she said as she watched the purple mushrooms char. “Whatever this crust that I made [is], it’s gonna caramelize and get those grill marks and get that really nice chargrilled flavor on it.”

Chef Amanda Singh seasons beet-infused lion’s mane mushrooms at Apple Blossom in downtown Denver on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

Cut them open with a fork and knife, beet juice mixture oozes out of the mushrooms.

When it comes to steak, though, Singh and Mangin follow different philosophies.

At American Elm, Mangin moves his cut of ribeye around the grill and flips it so each side faces the heat and chars the outside, guaranteeing a more even cook inside. Singh, on the other hand, grills her New York strip enough to develop brown outer marks but otherwise keeps it at a “rare plus.”

Her aversion to well-done steak stems from a fateful beef stroganoff her mother once made for dinner. “It was the toughest steak I’ve ever had in my life,” she said. At Apple Blossom, she sprinkles coarse salt flakes on her steak once it’s off the grill and plates it with a garlic bourbon sauce.

Both favor texture over temperature when judging their steaks. Mangin instructs his line cooks to drop their reliance on thermometers and instead use cake testers, stabbing them inside the meat for five to ten seconds and pressing them against the inside of their wrists. The tester stick gets progressively warmer as the steak cooks, he said.

Fish also show their own signs of progression as they cook. In what’s known as the Maillard reaction, a cut of salmon will start browning underneath and lift itself off the grill as it caramelizes, Mangin said. Flip it too soon and the fish will stick to the grill.

“It’ll tell you when it’s ready,” Mangin said.

Grilled Salmon with calabrian donair, rye berries, fried cauliflower, charred spring onions and golden raisin gremolata is one of the popular dishes at American Elm restaurant located at 4132 W. 38th ave in Denver on May 28, 2025. American Elm is a neighborhood eatery and bar that offers elevated fare in a relaxed setting. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)

His grilled salmon is served over a mound of cauliflower and a minced golden raisin gremolata. He understands there are proponents of salmon skin — including the family of American Elm owner Bob Reiter — but he prefers to cut it off of every fillet for a more evenly cooked product.

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For his squash cavatelli, he grills squash directly over the fire until the skins are fully black and charred. From there, they’re sliced and tossed inside a smoker, where the squash develops into a sauce that forms the foundation of the pasta dish.

Stirred with a little garlic, butter and fishy bonito flakes, everything but the skin of the squash is served with the cavatelli and topped with anchovies, lemon zest and drizzled herb oil that add acidity and fragrance to the savory sauce.

All in all, it’s a two-day process that begins on the grill.

“Patience is necessary, but finesse can conquer — usually,” Mangin said. “Just because you burn something doesn’t mean it’s ruined.”