SUNDAY

MAY 12

2013

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

Sundance, 5:30 p.m. ET

PREMIERE SPECIAL: Mammas is the third entry in actress Isabella Rossellini’s daring and darling Green Porno series of shorts, in which she dresses up as various creatures to explain their natural behaviors. Anyone can launch a web series – but when the star of Blue Velvet does it, she uses an actual giant web, and dresses up as a spider. As a Mother’s Day treat, Sundance is showing these Mammas web shorts as a special, and it’s definitely something to watch with the whole family, bizarre as it is. There hasn’t been an actress with this original a vision for a family TV series since Shelley Duvall launched Faerie Tale Theatre. For a taste of Mammas, see Video Worth Watching.

ONCE UPON A TIME

ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET

SEASON FINALE: Lost was the last ABC series to reset itself, time and time again, with its season finales — often resetting time and space in the process. Tonight's Season 2 finale of Once Upon a Time does just that, by once again redefining the show's central curse. And if the titles of the past two episodes are any indication, plus the appearance of Hook and the Lost Boys, we may be heading straight for Neverland.

10 BUILDINGS THAT CHANGED AMERICA

PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET

This special looks at 10 U.S. buildings whose architecture had a major impact on subsequent styles. For a full review, see Cold Light Reader by our own Eric Gould, who’s not only a TV critic, but an architect as well. Check local listings.

MAD MEN

AMC, 10:00 p.m. ET

Last week’s episode was a surprise game-changer, merging the two agencies so that Don and Peggy (Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss) will be working together once more. And here comes another game-changer, I suspect: Mad Men has been tiptoeing, none too subtly, towards one of the most major and tragic events of the summer of 1968: the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. It doesn’t necessarily happen tonight, but the events on Mad Men are so close, I’m betting it is. And it ought to change everything on this series – because, back then, it changed everything for everyone.

FAMILY TREE

HBO, 10:30 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: This eight-part TV series from Christopher Guest has its own pitch, tone and pace – but if you’re a fan of Guest’s politely strange sense of humor (and I certainly am), this tale of a 30-year-old U.K. slacker (played by Chris O’Dowd) suddenly exploring his family tree is loaded with delights. For a full review, see Bianculli’s Blog.

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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

Sundance, 5:30 p.m. ET

ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET

PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET

AMC, 10:00 p.m. ET

HBO, 10:30 p.m. ET

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