MONDAY

NOVEMBER 12

2018

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET

This week marks the beginning of this cycle’s live playoffs, when the remaining 24 singers – six from each team – fight, and sing, for survival. More important, switching to a live format means that segments can’t be edited, and judges must be aware and respectful of the time allotted for each portion. And the way judge Kelly Clarkson free-associates and freely (and charmingly) gabs, the level of unpredictability from now on is ramped up considerably.

THE PRICE OF EVERYTHING

HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET

This new HBO documentary asks a simple yet provocative question: What determines the value of art, financially if not aesthetically? (True story: I asked this same question firsthand as a young TV critic in the late 1970s. I visited the then-extant Dudley Do-Right Emporium on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood then, and saw a Rocky & Bullwinkle animated cel on sale for $50. That seemed a high price to pay for a simple group shot of Rocky, Bullwinkle, Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, so I passed. Upon my return home, I received a catalog from that same emporium, run by animator Jay Ward and his wife, and the same cel was now priced at $200. I phoned the store in a panic and bought the cel – but asked, since it was about to become the most expensive work of art I owned, if Jay Ward could please sign the cel. His wife asked him, he thought it was a funny request, and] did. The last time I had the signed cel appraised, with its rare Ward signature, it was worth something like $7,000 – and that was more than 20 years ago. So yeah, the price of everything is really weird. And no, Jay Ward is not one of the artists in this documentary. I digress...)

MARS

National Geographic, 9:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: Is there life on Mars? Well, in the cliffhanger to last season’s National Geographic series – an unusual combination of nonfiction interviews with experts and a scripted dramatization of what a manned mission to the red planet might entail – there was a discovery of life on Mars. The scripted, fictional part of this show, that is. And tonight, that story, and that mission, continues, as do the real-life questions and considerations discussed by the people interviewed. For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.

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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

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National Geographic, 9:00 p.m. ET

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