SATURDAY
JUNE 1
2019

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET

Drew Goddard, who came up through the TV writing and producing ranks in such inventive genre series as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Lost, and Daredevil (not to mention the quirky comic The Good Place), wrote and directed this stylized 2018 movie, set in the early 1970s at a fictional but fanciful Lake Tahoe hotel. The place is built on the state line dividing Nevada and California, so rooms on one side of the hall are in a different state, and designed thematically with different decor, than those across the hall. That’s not the plot of El Royale, which has something to do with a hidden satchel of money, but it sure is a spiffy bit of set design. Stars include Dakota Johnson (pictured), Jeff Bridges, Jon Hamm, and Chris Hemsworth.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

In 1961, Rita Moreno won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing Anita in this seminal screen musical. This summer in New York, a new version of West Side Story is being filmed – by director Steven Spielberg, with the participation of Stephen Sondheim (who told me about it approvingly and excitedly a year ago) and a revised story by Tony Kushner. And there’s a part in this new film, all these years later, for Rita Moreno. She’s playing Valentina, a new character created by Kushner, a female replacement for Doc, who ran what used to be the West Side soda shop and corner store where Tony worked. So this time, no singing – unless Sondheim is writing a new number especially for her, which isn’t completely out of the question… and eventually, when the movie remake is released, we’ll find out what’s up, Doc…

 
  
 
 
 
 
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Dave Bianculli
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David Bianculli

Founder / Editor

David Bianculli has been a TV critic since 1975, including a 14-year stint at the New York Daily News, and sees no reason to stop now. Currently, he's TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and is an occasional substitute host for that show. He's also an author and teaches TV and film history at New Jersey's Rowan University. His 2009 Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour', has been purchased for film rights. His latest, The Platinum Age of Television: From I Love Lucy to the Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific, is an effusive guidebook that plots the path from the 1950s’ Golden Age to today’s era of quality TV.