Entertainment

TCM continues its glance back at MGM’s history as the studio marks its 100th birthday. While few fans flock to the old silent films, the history and practices of these old mogul-run entertainment factories can teach us a lot about contemporary pop culture.

Nominated for five Oscars and based on a 2014 novel by Martin Amis, the 2023 drama “The Zone of Interest” (8 p.m. Saturday, HBO, streaming on Max) stars Christian Friedel as Rudolf Hoss, a Nazi commandant who tries to create a domestic family life with his wife, Hedwig (Sandra Huller), while living right next door to the Auschwitz extermination facility.

From “The Streets of San Francisco” to the court of Versailles is a long trip. And it has taken some 50 years for Michael Douglas, star and executive producer of “Franklin,” an eight-episode historical epic streaming on Apple TV+.

There are so many words that “trigger” me. Let’s start with “trigger”! Call me old-fashioned, but when I see the terms “post-apocalyptic,” “steampunk,” “alternative history,” “retrofuturism” and “based on a video game,” I reach for my remote.

Kids and teens

Kids these days! As long as there have been teenage trends, there have been older people, all of them former teenagers, who have judged the younger generation’s behavior and shopping habits. Beach movies from the 1960s, mall-set satires from the 1980s and high school movies and shows from every era satirize teenage materialism.

Fans of Netflix’s “The Crown” might gravitate toward “Scoop,” a 2024 drama based on real events. Also streaming on Netflix, it might appeal to those who felt that the last season of that expensive period drama was a bit of a bust, if not a cop-out.

One of my favorite Hollywood anecdotes involves the funeral of the much-disliked Columbia Pictures mogul Harry Cohn. Interviewed about the size of the crowd at the 1958 event, genial funnyman Red Skelton is said to have quipped, “Give the people what they want, and they’ll turn out in droves!”

To celebrate its 30th birthday, TCM revives a habit from the more distant past — the Saturday night double feature. In a new feature titled “Two for One,” TCM will invite directors and actors to present their own double bills every Saturday night for 12 weeks.

Viewers in search of something peculiar and intriguing that warns you of its imminent plot twists might enjoy the neo-noir thriller “Sugar” streaming its first two episodes today on Apple TV+.