MONDAY

DECEMBER 12

2016

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

TNT, 7:00 p.m. ET

There are two chances to see this 1939 musical classic on TNT tonight. Once at 7 p.m. ET, and again, immediately afterward at 9:15 p.m. ET. In both of them, Judy Garland’s Dorothy arrives in Oz at the exact same time, and watches her drab black-and-white world shift to color. Of course, that didn’t happen when I watched this then-big-deal annual TV event on my family’s TV as a kid. It was in black and white, so Oz wasn’t quite so magical – and that “horse of a different color” visual joke was lost on me completely. Oh, well… now I have big-screen color TVs all over the place. And I still delight in watching The Wizard of Oz.

THE VOICE

NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET

CYCLE FINALE: This is the beginning of this show’s two-night finale for its latest edition, which has introduced, very successfully, Miley Cyrus and Alicia Keys as the latest Voice judges. They’ve both done very well: Keys with her natural sincerity and beauty, and Cyrus with her bubbly young enthusiasm and rebellious streak. But they’re not going to emerge as winning judges their first time out. That honor will go to Adam Levine, thanks to Voice finalist Billy Gilman, who’s bound to win this thing this time around. All four judges turned for him during his blind audition, and two of them, Cyrus and Blake Shelton, had personal memories of Gilman when he was a very young child country recording star. But Levine, the first to hit his buzzer for Gilman, prevailed, and has steered the comeback artist to one musical triumph after another. If Gilman sings another showstopper tonight, there should be no stopping him.

MARS

National Geographic, 9:00 p.m. ET

In tonight’s episode, the futuristic drama segment of this installment is inspired by an actual geological and meteorological phenomenon on Mars: planetary dust storms that envelop and temporarily smother the red planet. In the fictionalized dramatizations, this leads to a period of cabin fever – and the cabin is on a distant planet.

TIMELESS

NBC, 10:01 p.m. ET

MIDSEASON FINALE: Tonight’s time-traveling episode takes the crew back to a revolutionary period – where they interact with Benedict Arnold, played by Curtis Caravaggio.

FULL FRONTAL WITH SAMANTHA BEE

TBS, 10:30 p.m. ET

Saturday Night Live didn’t do anything of substance with this week’s revelations about the extent of the Russians’ alleged involvement in the American presidential election, leaking only the Democratic side of hacked emails in order to help Donald Trump win. Bill Maher and John Oliver are both on hiatus, so we heard nothing from them in response. Samantha Bee, then, has the chance to step up and grab the satirical current-events spotlight for her own – something she’s been doing a lot of lately anyway.

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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

TNT, 7:00 p.m. ET

NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET

National Geographic, 9:00 p.m. ET

NBC, 10:01 p.m. ET

TBS, 10:30 p.m. ET

David Bianculli

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