FRIDAY
NOVEMBER 10
2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

“Anyone who loves movies,” Roger Ebert wrote in 1990, two years after this movie was released, “is likely to love Cinema Paradiso.”  Written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, this Italian film is about a movie projectionist in Sicily just after WWII – and just before the advent of television. We see regular movie patrons watch movie after movie, most of them imports from Hollywood, and we also pay attention to aging projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) as he screens his inventory for two people in particular: his young projection-booth assistant and companion, played by Salvatore Cascio, and a local priest, who is censoring the movies before they are shown to the townspeople. Much of Cinema Paradiso is in flashback, to Alfredo’s youth, but all of it is a love letter to the giant screen, its contents, and its emotional impact.

 
  
 
 

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

In 2008, when this Great Performances special was televised, it was chronicling the efforts of a new young talent to mount his first stage musical, a work that eventually went to Broadway and won four Tony Awards, including for Best Musical and Best Score. The musical was a modern celebration of the culture and character surrounding a bodega in modern-day Washington Heights – and the star of the show, and the author of its music, was a then-unknown young dreamer named Lin-Manuel Miranda. Chasing Broadway Dreams chronicles the long, difficult, and ultimately triumphant journey to turn his dreams into Broadway reality – a recipe PBS followed again for the composer-lyricist’s next work, a little musical called Hamilton. Check local listings.

 
  
 
 

Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET

I’ll repeat the same thing I said last week: the more of these installments are shown, the more its point is made that there are way too many mass shootings in the U.S. This week’s documentary is about the 2012 mass shooting in the Wisconsin town of Oak Creek, where the target was a Sikh temple and the people praying within.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

The lineup for tonight’s show, if they all show up, sounds like it will make for the most power-packed and entertaining Real Time of the past few years. The guests are Donna Brazile, author of her controversial memoir as a Democratic Party insider, MSNBC host Chris Matthews, filmmaker and activist Michael Moore, and outspoken comic Sarah Silverman (pictured). Sounds like an all-liberal panel for once – but it also sounds contentious, and very, very interesting.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.