Top Picks: The Plantsnap app, 'The Good Cop' on Netflix
The Broadway show 'Wicked' is celebrating its 15th anniversary on Broadway with 'A Very Wicked Halloween' on NBC, the movie 'First Reformed' stars Ethan Hawke as a pastor who struggles with what to do after hearing about a radical environmentalist and his views, and more top picks.
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Planting knowledge
If you can’t tell a daisy from a tulip or if you’re a plant lover who is baffled by one particular blossom, the PlantSnap app can give you some insight into botanical matters. Take a photo of the plant and the app will identify it. (At the moment, it recognizes 90 percent of all known species of plants and trees.) PlantSnap is $3.99 for iOS and free for Android.
Good cop, bad cop
The 10-episode first season of the TV show The Good Cop, which stars Josh Groban and Tony Danza, is streaming on Netflix. Groban plays Tony Caruso Jr., a police detective whose rigid view of rules and morality contrasts with the attitude of his father (Danza), a former police detective who was convicted of corruption. Despite their differences and frequent clashes, the show makes clear how much the two care for each other.
Insight into ‘native america’
A new series, Native America, debuts on PBS on Oct. 23 at 9 p.m. and presents a view of the Americas before and after Europeans arrived that may be vastly different from what viewers know. It was filmed on location from Canada to Peru. In addition, animators created art for the program that is used to depict Native legends.
'Wicked’ celebration
The Broadway show “Wicked,” which is based on the novel by Gregory Maguire about what happened between the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch before a young girl from Kansas arrived, is celebrating its 15th anniversary on Broadway with A Very Wicked Halloween. The NBC special airs Oct. 29 at 10 p.m. Original “Wicked” stars Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth will host the program, and singer Ariana Grande, the current cast of “Wicked” on Broadway, and the
a cappella group Pentatonix will perform.
Environment views
The movie First Reformed is available on DVD and Blu-ray. It stars Ethan Hawke as Ernst Toller, a pastor who sees man-made climate change as the “end of days” and struggles with what to do after hearing about a radical environmentalist and his views. Monitor film critic Peter Rainer writes that Hawke gives a “strong, spooked performance.”