Good 'Luck': HBO Brings David Milch, and Other Thoroughbreds, to a New TV Series

David Milch. Michael Mann. Dustin Hoffman. Nick Nolte. HBO's Luck, which premieres Sunday night at 9 ET, claims all of those defiantly individual artists and more, working towards a common goal: to produce an involved, multi-layered, intriguing show about the world of horse racing. At that goal, they cross the finish line impressively -- but not in record time. It takes a while to define, understand and warm up to the characters and conflicts in Luck -- but it's worth the effort, and the commitment. By episode three, all the pieces are in place, and Luck really begins to pay off... (more)

	NAMATH HBO, 9 p.m. ET Subtitled Beaver Falls to Broadway, this biography stresses the person as much as the athlete, and spends a lot of time, at the program’s beginning and end, revisiting and discussing the small Pennsylvania mining town from which Joe Willie Namath emerged. But it also covers his days as a star quarterback at the University of Alabama, his tabloid New York playboy lifestyle, his two periods of alcoholism, his Hollywood film career and more – all orbiting around his guaranteed win at Super Bowl III. This HBO Sports documentary is a very good study: thorough and compassionate, yet unflinching and honest.
	BROKEDOWN PALACE Sundance, 9:05 p.m. ET This 1999 movie is about two teenage girls arrested in Thailand and charged with heroin smuggling. What makes it noteworthy, 13 years later, is not only the tautness of its fact-based drama, but also the performances, and identities, of the leading ladies. Claire Danes plays one, Kake Beckinsale the other.
	O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? ABC Family, 10 p.m. ET This 2000 movie may be my favorite Coen Brothers film, and that’s high praise indeed. The sheer audacity of its concept is dizzying: loosely based on Homer’s The Odyssey, centered on a soundtrack of backwoods country songs, and borrowing its title from the name of an unproduced screenplay mentioned in the satirical film Sullivan’s Travels. Yet it all works, deliriously well, thanks to George Clooney’s charismatically cartoonish star turn as a convict on the lam.
	AN IDIOT ABROAD 2: THE BUCKET LIST Science Channel, 10 p.m. ET In this week’s installment, the season’s second, poor Karl Pilkington is crammed aboard the Trans-Siberian railroad, strapped into a Soviet-era G-force centrifuge, and, left to choose his own itinerary for once, visits a dwarf village he’d heard about in China. Tight quarters all around – and entertainment all around, as well. For my TV WORTH WATCHING interview with Karl Pilkington, and a preview of the new season of Idiot Abroad, read BIANCULLI’S BLOG HERE.
	SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE NBC, 11:29 p.m. ET This repeat proves Thomas Wolfe wrong, by proving that Jimmy Fallon, at least, can go home again – as he hosts SNL for the first time stepping down as one of the show’s Not Ready for Prime Time Players. In one sketch, he gazes wistfully at his own reflection – with current cast member Andy Samberg “mirroring” his every move. Well, most of them. And wait until “Weekend Update”…

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Made by Thoroughbreds, HBO's 'Luck' Can Be a Daze at the Races

Ed Bark

A horse is a horse, of course of course. If only it were that easy with Luck, a measured and at times almost mystical series devoted to the so-called "Sport of Kings" -- and degenerate gamblers. HBO took the unprecedented step of sending out all nine episodes of Season 1. And you'll pretty much win in the end if you ride this mount all the way to the finish line . . . (more)

Fox's 'Touch' Can Be Tough to Grasp

Ed Bark

The numbers, the premise, the interconnectivity and Kiefer Sutherland as a beaten-down airport baggage handler. None of these quite add up in Fox's Touch. Not that all involved aren't wholly well-intended in this far-flung aspirational new series from the creator and executive producer of NBC's Heroes. Fox is launching it via a special preview episode following Wednesday's edition of American Idol . . . (more)

Boston Gets a Gift, New York Gets a Break -- And I May Get an Ulcer

Eric Gould

Standing at midfield with CBS Sports' JIm Nantz Sunday night, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said into the microphone, his words reverberating throughout Gillette Stadium, "I sucked pretty bad today, but our defense saved us." It was blunt and accurate -- though not, perhaps, the most eloquent post-game recap by a top national sports figure. Especially with kids watching. But you had to admire the honesty and the grit of the moment . . . (more)

Barky Does 'Dallas' (The Next Generation)

Ed Bark

TNT's new version of Dallas won't be premiering until sometime this summer. But the network already has the opening episode completed, and sent it to TV writers . . . It's a briskly entertaining hour . . . (more)

FLICK PICKS: Bela Says 'Pull the String!'

If I tout a triple feature of Bela films, nobody's going to ask "Bela who?" Eighty years after his first Hollywood splash, Bela Lugosi remains an icon, whether it's from Martin Landau's delirious tribute in Tim Burton's Ed Wood or Lugosi's eerie work in films like the three '30s chillers unreeling Sunday night on Turner Classic Movies . . . (more)

PRESS TOUR: TV Critics Meet J.Lo

Oh, to have been at this press tour session! Train wreck! It's already going down in TCA lore, says this fun report from our friend Ray Richmond in Deadline Hollywood on Univision's J.Lo/Marc Anthony appearance, to promote the Jan. 28 premiere of their talent search series Q'VIva! The Chosen . . . (more)

ELLERY QUEEN

This perennially enjoyable '70s gem casts Jim Hutton (Timothy's dad) as an absent-minded mystery writer who helps his police inspector dad (David Wayne) solve murders in postwar NYC. Packed with cool vintage suspects -- er, guest stars! Now over half off!

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