SUNDAY

AUGUST 11

2013

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

IFC, 8:30 p.m. ET

At a recent visit to New York’s Museum of the Moving Image, I came across an exhibit that was a total surprise: the illuminated, highly intricate scale model for the towering, looming, dystopian building featured in Blade Runner. It reminded me of how bold, and visually influential, this 1982 Ridney Scott movie was, and remains. Harrison Ford stars – and Rutger Hauer, as the replicant he ends up chasing and facing, makes for a wonderful, unforgettable villain. Ditto for Daryl Hannah, who plays another very lively inhuman.

BREAKING BAD

AMC, 9:00 p.m. ET

MIDSEASON RETURN: When was the last time I was this excited about the return of a TV series? Let’s just say it’s been a while. And while I’ve previewed tonight’s returning hour, the forthcoming final seven episodes are as unknown to me as they are to you – and boy, I cannot wait. For a full review, see Bianculli’s Blog. To hear or read my review on NPR, go to the Fresh Air with Terry Gross website. To read about recent coverage of the Breaking Bad New York exhibit and public seminars, go to another entry of Bianculli’s Blog. And last and best, to read about – and then watch – a wonderful TVWW-made video compilation about one of the best visual motifs in Breaking Bad, see Eric Gould’s Cold Light Reader. (Do we like Breaking Bad around here, or what?) Then, after all that homework, watch tonight’s Season 5, Episode 9 premiere, and pick up your jaw.

DEXTER

Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET

The Dexter writers certainly have focused on episode-ending cliffhangers this season: Dr. Vogel knows about Dexter’s code. Debra drives into a lake with Dexter as a passenger. And, last week, both Deb and Dexter pass out after drinking wine, laced with a knockout drug by the unexpectedly reappearing Hannah (Yvonne) Strahovski, the poisonous yet alluring serial killer with whom Dexter has shared a torrid affair: on-again, off-again, maybe-I’ll-off-her, maybe-I’ll-off-him.

FAIL SAFE

TCM, 10:30 p.m. ET

It’s Henry Fonda Day on TCM, which means good movies almost any time you tune in. That includes, in the evening hours, 1940’s The Grapes of Wrath at 8 p.m. ET, and 1955’s much lighter Mister Roberts at 12:30 a.m. ET. But between those movies, it also means this 1964 thriller, the no-laughs mirror image of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. In Fail Safe, a U.S. bomber pilot heads towards Moscow with a mistakenly “approved” mission to drop a nuclear bomb – and Fonda, as the U.S. President, is superb, when he finally shows up. And so is his interpreter, who helps him read the nuances of his phone call with the Russian premier. The young interpreter is played by Larry Hagman, long before Dallas.

TALKING BAD

AMC, 11:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: Chris Hardwick, who also hosts the Talking Dead post-game talk show on AMC, gets to send out the final eight episodes in style. It’s a brilliant move by AMC, and one that encourages real-time viewing of Breaking Bad rather than hoarding episodes for later viewing, like some sort of delayed-gratification squirrel, burying nuts for the winter. The only thing AMC is doing wrong here is separating the two shows, Breaking Bad and Talking Bad, with its newest series, Low Winter Sun. Which, to complete the trio, is closer to just bad. Ideally, Breaking and Talking would be, and should be, an uninterrupted double feature.

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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

IFC, 8:30 p.m. ET

AMC, 9:00 p.m. ET

Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET

TCM, 10:30 p.m. ET

AMC, 11:00 p.m. ET

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