SUNDAY
AUGUST 13
2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

CBS, 2:00 p.m. ET

Finally, the final day: And today it’s a field so tight, and so competitive, that one streak of inspired golf could claim it all.

 
  
 
 

Showtime, 8:00 p.m. ET

The end of last week’s Twin Peaks: The Return gave us, at least, some old familiar faces and characters: Everett McGill’s Ed Hurley pining silently about his unrequited love for Peggy Lipton's Norma Jennings. James Marshall’s James Hurley, Ed’s son, reprising a song he sang on the original Twin Peaks. And Sherilyn Fenn’s Audrey Horne playing David Lynch’s existential version of “Should I Come or Should I Go?” to Clark Middleton’s oppressive Charlie. Audrey wasn’t acting at all like herself – but then again, neither is Kyle MacLachlan’s Dale Cooper, and that’s been going on for 14 episodes now.

 
  
 
 

CNN, 9:00 p.m. ET

This week’s installment is called The Information Age. It’s about how technology, including the personal computer, changed our world in the 1990s and beyond. Take, for example, Google, the search engine service that was launched in 1998. You can look it up…

 
  
 
 

HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET

I don’t mean to be critical, but last week’s epic battle sequence was really dragon. And this week, we learn not only who emerges from that battlefield victoriously – but, in at least one prominent case, whether Jaime emerges at all. Last week, in the very last shot, he wasn’t emerging – he was submerging.

 
  
 
 

Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET

Last week’s season premiere was all about teasing – teasing the still-secret revelation about what happened to Ray, his wife and his family since the time we last saw them, and teasing the imminent arrival of Susan Sarandon as this year’s season-long guest star. This week, thanks to some extended flashbacks, the teasing continues. But I’m not complaining.
 
  
 
 

CNN, 10:00 p.m. ET

This week’s installment is called Politics Aside, and looks at the many ways comedy has influenced politics over the ages. I haven’t previewed this installment, but here’s hoping Mark Twain, Will Rogers, Mort Sahl, That Was the Week That Was, and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and Pat Paulsen (pictured), among other early political-comedy pioneers, all get credit where it’s due.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 11:00 p.m. ET

President Trump is on vacation this week. John Oliver isn’t.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.