As a TV series, Woody Allen's 'Crisis in Six Scenes' offers many pleasures of a Woody Allen movie

At the age of 80, Woody Allen has written, directed and is starring in his first television series, "Crisis in Six Scenes," made for Amazon and available to stream in its entirety beginning Friday. As may be said of Allen's remarkably prolific and long-lived film career, it has its better and worse, its sharper and duller points; but as the work that has returned Elaine May to public view, it can only be welcomed, with rose petals and trumpets. And it does well by her. He wrote for television before making his name as a stand-up comedian; was a familiar talk and variety show guest once that name was made; made two semi-topical specials, "Woody Allen Looks at 1967" and "Woody Allen Looks at 1969" for NBC; directed and acted in a 1994 TV adaptation of his 1966 play "Don't Drink the Water"; and acted opposite Peter Falk in a 1996 version of Neil Simon's "The Sunshine Boys." But this is something new from him.