FRIDAY
MAY 12
2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

Amazon Prime Video, 3:00 a.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: Jill Soloway of Transparent brings another intentionally and creatively provocative TV series to Amazon. This one takes the 1997 novel by Chris Kraus, told through a series of letters written by an infatuated yet infuriated artistic woman to a self-centered yet charismatic intellectual figure named Dick, and turns it into a playful comedy-drama, with Kathryn Hahn as the central protagonist, and Kevin Bacon as the embodiment of the self-satisfied artist, running an arts program in Marfa, TX – part cowboy, part chauvinist, part artistic poser, and all entertaining. For my full review, listen today to NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, or, this afternoon or later, visit the Fresh Air website. For full TVWW reviews, see Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes and David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.

 
  
 
 

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: I adored the 1985 PBS version of Anne of Green Gables, a delightful miniseries produced and exported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC, working with Netflix, is behind this new version as well. It’s renamed Anne with an E, and it’s excellent to a T. Lucy Maud Montgomery’s 1908 novel, more than a century old, still casts a potent spell, and still is suitable (make that fabulous) entertainment for the entire family. And now, as adapted by Moira Walley-Beckett from Breaking Bad, it’s even edgier and more proudly feminist than ever, without losing any of its loving charm. Amybeth McNulty, as the freckled, imaginative Anne, is a total delight. For my full review, listen today to NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, or, this afternoon or later, visit the Fresh Air website. And for a full TVWW review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.

 
  
 
 

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: Aziz Ansari returns, after too long an absence, with Season 2 of his impressively distinct and comically honest situation comedy. It begins in Italy, where Ansari’s Dev has gone to get over a bad breakup and enroll in cooking school – and goes from there. My only complaint is that Netflix has started churning out so many series these days that the return of Master of None, on a day when Netflix also launches Anne with an E, may get lost in the mix. At least for today – but Netflix, I figure, is in for the long haul.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

This is the year, though not the week, that The Graduate premiered 50 years ago. It changed my life then, and I’ve adored it ever since – so any time it’s in prime time, uninterrupted and unedited, as it is here, it’s worth celebrating, and certainly TV worth watching. Plastics.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

What else do you need to know? Bill Maher’s top-of-show scheduled guest this week is Adam Schiff. A year ago, this politician was very much unknown. These days, he’s very much the opposite – and what a week to have him on!

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.