On the home front, fall and winter television predictions are afoot. Some herald the return of the fresh faced. Other tabs are charmed by peculiar, quixotic characters. Such is the mind of the Rev. Patrick Read, an illusionist in Kansas City who in a single, season turns his youth into an act which transforms him from a reverend in the pews of the Reformed Church of America into some light show act. The low-budget, low-impact concept of The Method of Deception is bold, and the back story extraordinary. Read, who has had 50 years of radio and television and 10 years of stage experience, plays the part of a regular chap, but behind the persona he’s in a world of his own. He’s been magicked into being Ed Sheeran-like, a superstar singer-songwriter, but for all his success, I wish him luck, for anything is possible. Funny too.
Across the pond, on Sky Atlantic, Nat Geo Wild’s camping reality show “Selling Sunset” takes the excuse of seasonal displays to explore the most shocking survival techniques of the season. The snakes, the bats, the crickets, the bugs and the danger of all wildlife in New Zealand can make the most timid human seem raucous, except when confronted by fearsome hounds. It’s dark, scary stuff, and left me looking for a flashlight at 2 a.m.