WEDNESDAY
JULY 11
2012

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

Encore, 8:00 p.m. ET

Okay, so I’m a sucker for Bond movies – even the “B” ones. (Just not the ones graded “C” and “D.”) This 1971 one, for example, returns Sean Connery to the franchise, after an embarrassingly ineffective one-film substitution by George Lazenby. Diamonds doesn’t sparkle, by any means, but it does show off Jill St. John to good effect as one of the Bond girls – and Lana Wood, Natalie’s sister (pictured), as another one.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Someday very soon, I’ll compile a list of the movies that ensnare me like a spider web whenever they’re televised, regardless of how many times I’ve seen them, and ask for yours. (But I want to get a whole column out of this, so hold your answers for the moment.) But suffice it to say that this 1973 movie is one of them. Robert Redford, who’s being honored tonight with a lineup of movies on TCM, is wonderful here. And Paul Newman, even though he’s in more of a supporting role, is even better. Then there’s Robert Shaw, as their mob-boss target. What a cast – and what a story.

 
  
 
 

DirecTV Audience Network, 9:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: It’s the last season for both this series and TNT’s The Closer, so enjoy these strong female leads while TV is giving them to you. And in the case of Damages, there’s not just one strong woman at the core, but two: Glenn Close as ruthless attorney Patty Hewes, and Rose Byrne as her protégé Ellen Parsons, who’s turned out to be just as tough, and just as hard to read. Tonight’s final-season opener introduces a typically complex new client: Ryan Phillippe as an Internet muckraker clearly modeled after Julian Assange. Villain or hero? It’s a question you could – and should – ask about Patty and Ellen as well.

 
  
 
 

Showtime, 10:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: Last year, The Franchise trained its cameras and microphones on the San Francisco Giants. This season, it’s the Miami Marlins, the team that’s both renamed and rebuilding – no Marlin was present at last night’s All-Star game. But Showtime promises even more behind-the-scenes access than with the Giants, starting with this expanded one-hour opener.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 10:15 p.m. ET

Another impressively effective Robert Redford performance and showcase, this 1984 movie is one of the two best baseball-as-fable movies ever made. (The other? Field of Dreams.) There’s a deep and wonderful cast here, but pay special attention to Glenn Close (pictured) as a woman who catches the eye of Redford’s late-blooming baseball rookie. If you flip from tonight’s Damages to this, you may get whiplash while absorbing the difference, and the range.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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Dave Bianculli
Hey sweetie-pie,

WTF does this have to do with the greatest invention known to mankind: TV?????

Go away.

Warmly,

Dave
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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.