MONDAY
JANUARY 12
2015

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Made in 1953, this romantic comedy, directed by William Wyler, stars Audrey Hepburn as a princess who slips away from her handlers while on a visit to Rome. She ends up in the care, and the apartment, of an American newspaper reporter played by Gregory Peck, who’s initially unaware of her true identity. The Roman scenery is beautiful, and so is Hepburn.

 
  
 
 

ESPN, 8:30 p.m. ET

For college football, this first-ever championship contest is The Big Game in more ways than one. The semifinal games these teams won to get here (beating Florida State and Alabama, respectively) drew enough viewers – more than 28 million each – to rank as the two top-rated shows in the history of cable TV. Ever. So how big will tonight’s championship get? Expect it to be cable’s all-time biggest draw, period. And it’s especially impressive because, had this year’s bowls been scheduled under the old system instead, Alabama and Florida State probably would be playing this final game, rather than frozen out by teams that earned the right to play by beating them when it counted most.

 
  
 
 

Showtime, 9:30 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: So many good programs were shown on TV last night, it’s likely that this one, which ran at 10:30 p.m. ET, was one you missed. So here it is again, repeated a day later in an earlier time slot, to make it easier for you. For a full review, see Bianculli’s Blog. And to hear or read my review on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, visit the Fresh Air website.

 
  
 
 

PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET

Spike Lee is executive producer of this documentary, in which the filmmaker examines the story of a Texas teen whose circumstances led him down the path to become a young bank robber. The twist here is that the young man, Darius Clark Monroe, is also the filmmaker – now an adult, and looking back on his own teen life and, sometimes, very bad choices. Check local listings.

 
  
 
 

MTV, 10:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: This new 10-episode series comes from author R.L. Stine, who’s come up with a premise, starring Victoria Justice (veteran of Nickelodeon’s Zoey 101 and Victorious) as a young woman who’s a very gifted hacker, that’s part Veronica Mars, part Stalker – with some of the better qualities from the former, and some of the violent excesses and logical lapses of the latter. But for MTV, it’s almost literally a dramatic step forward: Justice’s Lindy, driven to solve the mysteries of both her missing little sister (who was abducted before her eyes three years earlier) and a cyber-dating serial killer, is much more interesting than most MTV characters. Oh, and the Eye Candy title? That’s the dating website handle her friends gave to her when posting her profile on “Flirtual.”

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.