Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review.
Q: I was wondering if you knew when the Penguins games will be on WTAE. I know they do a few every year on there. I just haven’t heard anything about them yet.
— Josh, via email
Rob: Yes, per WTAE, Penguins games will air on Channel 4 with post-game programming on Feb. 22 (vs. Washington Capitals, 3-6 p.m.), March 1 (vs. Boston Bruins, 3-6 p.m.), March 15 (vs. New Jersey Devils, 3-6 p.m.) and April 5 (at Dallas Stars, 3-6 p.m.).
Q: Although I was not a fan of “Yellowstone,” I have really enjoyed watching “Landman” and think Billy Bob Thornton is very good in his role as well as the other actors. The downside for me to this show is the mother-daughter act that for me is really over the top. I was wondering what your thoughts were and if anyone else has commented on this?
— Fred, Butler
Rob: Like Fred, I really enjoyed “Landman” when it premiered, although I also think the quality tumbled as the season went along, despite Thornton’s best efforts (he remains the No. 1 reason to watch “Landman”).
Spoilers for season one of “Landman” ahead:
Partly the show became pacey, a common problem with Taylor Sheridan series. Later episodes also lacked the forward momentum of early “Landman” episodes.
While I was able to forgive the show’s musical score that’s a complete ripoff of the music in the similarly Texas-set series “Friday Night Lights” — I guess Texas-set shows can only have one type of musical score — it seemed like the writers ran into a corner scripting the mother-daughter stories until someone suggested a Michael’s product placement, which led to the completely out-of-character notion that Angela (Ali Larter) would start volunteering at a retirement home to give the mother-daughter characters something to do.
Come the season finale, I was surprised they wrote out Jon Hamm’s character so quickly, but that does explain why Demi Moore would take such a thankless role. She was playing the long game and her newly minted widow character will presumably become a more integral, active part of the story in season two.
Technically, Paramount+ has not renewed “Landman” for a second season as of this writing. But given its success on assorted ratings charts — Samba even had “Landman” ahead of Netflix’s “Squid Game” the week “Squid Game” debuted its second season, unbelievable as that may seem — it’s only a matter of time before “Landman” season two receives an official green light.
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Q: What do you know about PBS Passport? It seems like an alternate method to view PBS programming that WQED-TV doesn’t carry. Are there limitations to what is and isn’t available from alternate PBS stations due to copyrights? (Their webpage coyly doesn’t list any actual list of Passport shows “due to streaming rights and legal issues.”)
— Mark, Squirrel Hill
Rob: Viewers like you get access to Passport when you contribute at least $60 annually (or $5 per month as a sustaining member) to a PBS member station. Think of it this way: Passport is to PBS as Peacock is to NBC. Peacock carries pretty much all the NBC prime-time shows and then has additional programming not on NBC. Passport is similar.
The PBS.org website does include instructions on how to search for videos found only on PBS Passport. The search function allows the option to search for “featured Passport shows.” Some of those shows are recognizable PBS titles and some, including those nested under Walter Presents, are only found on Passport.
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