The front-runner
Alfonso Cuarón's movie "Roma," which rolls out Friday on Netflix, is being shown at just a handful of theaters (including the Edina and St. Anthony Main). That may hurt director Cuarón's chances at awards time, as will the fact that his film is in Spanish (with subtitles) and was shot in black-and-white. Doesn't matter. The overwhelmingly positive reviews all but assure it will be a serious Oscar contender.
Now streaming on Netflix
Petrie dishes
I'm not a big fan of messing with classic TV, but if adding color to old episodes of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" attracts a young audience unfamiliar with the 1960s sitcom, I'll withdraw my objections. The updated repeats — "Never Bathe on Saturday" and "Where Did I Come From" — showcase the superb timing and chemistry between the title star and Mary Tyler Moore, who forever changed the role of the sitcom "housewife."
8 p.m. Friday, WCCO, Ch. 4
Constant craving
Singer k.d. lang may not be the pop-culture icon she was back in 1993 when she shared the cover of Vanity Fair with Cindy Crawford. But she hasn't lost her ability to transform a theater into an intimate cabaret. "k.d. lang – Landmarks Live in Concert" finds the artist revisiting her breakthrough album "Ingenue" along with her killer cover of "Hallelujah" and an insightful interview with the L.A. Times' James Reed.
8 p.m. Friday, TPT, Ch. 2
Playing dirty
Those who mistake Pete Holmes with the naive comic he plays on "Crashing" may be taken aback by his new special "Pete Holmes: Dirty Clean," in which the stand-up addresses bad acting in porn and Elon Musk going to the bathroom, often while slipping into an alter ego who sounds like a hillbilly Al Pacino. The results can be unsettling — and funny as heck.
9 p.m. Saturday, HBO
