FRIDAY

OCTOBER 10

2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

Showtime, 8:00 p.m. ET

Showtime has done very well booking and showcasing its Friday night music documentaries, and here’s another. Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel are well-recognized solo pop stars in their own right – but in the beginning, there was Genesis. That was the group that spawned them both, and which, after all these years, they’re reuniting. This overview captures both past and present, with emphasis on the past. Some vintage performance footage captures Genesis in concert, while other clips film the group in the stu-stu-studio.

2014 AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

TBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

The Baltimore Orioles host the Kansas City Royals in tonight’s Game 1 of the ALCS. Baseball fans will be there, but why watch, if you’re not into baseball? Two reasons. One: The Orioles play in one of the most beautiful ballparks in all of baseball, and that beauty translates even through the small screen. Two: The Kansas City Royals are an upstart team trying to win its first pennant since 1985, and are doing it with defiant, daring speed on the base paths. In other words, it’s fun, and it’s friendly.

CRISTELA

ABC, 8:31 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: This is a warning, not a recommendation. Give Cristela Alonzo credit for being part of this year’s welcome trend of casting minorities in lead roles in prime-time sitcoms and dramas. But then watch something else, because this sitcom, Cristela, does not showcase her talents, or those of any of her costars, effectively, much less admirably. My original notes when watching tonight’s pilot say it all: “Bilingual boredom: Unfunny in any language.”

LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER: "THE NANCE"

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

Just as Nathan Lane is opening with a new play on Broadway, PBS presents a preserved-on-TV version of his last one: The Nance, Douglas Carter Beane’s 2013 drama about an actor in the 1930s who plays exaggeratedly flamboyant characters on stage, while secretly being gay himself. Check local listings.

THE KNICK

Cinemax, 10:00 p.m. ET

The title of tonight’s episode, “The Golden Lotus,” suggests that drugs will play a major part in this week’s episode, too – as Thackery (Clive Owen), in his drug-addicted fervor, seems to stray farther from the light, even as his surgical skills remain, so to speak, unmatched.

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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.

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BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

Showtime, 8:00 p.m. ET

TBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

ABC, 8:31 p.m. ET

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

Cinemax, 10:00 p.m. ET

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