FRIDAY
SEPTEMBER 13
2013

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

Let’s all get up and dance to a song that was a hit before your mother was born: Tonight PBS repeats last year’s intimate, charming little special in which Paul McCartney (with some help from Diana Krall) works through a repertoire of pop standards, including “Bye Bye Blackbird” – for him, a different kind of “Blackbird” song, but just as pleasant a listening experience. Oh, and if you’re wondering about the full title of his resultant album of standards, Kisses on the Bottom, it’s a quote from a line in “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Right Myself a Letter,” and the kisses on the bottom, in this case, refer to the “XOXO” signoff at the end of the page. Check local listings.

 
  
 
 

AMC, 9:15 p.m. ET

This may be my very favorite Coen Brothers movie of all, which is really saying something – and which is why I highlight this 2000 music-filled, laugh-filled, ludicrously loose adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey (!!) almost every time it’s televised. Each time, I hope to persuade a few more readers to see it for the first time. George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson and John Turturro play three chain-gang convicts (and backwoods recording group) on the run. And this time, I think I’ll use, as enticement, a picture of the three Sirens who tempt our heroes along the way. Previously, I’ve consistently misidentified one of them as Melinda Clarke – but even though Clarke played a Siren in an episode of Charmed, the actress who looks like Clarke (a huge compliment, by the way) actually is Musetta Vander, who vamps in the water along with Christy Taylor and Mia Tate.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 9:45 p.m. ET

On Fridays this month, TCM is giving its prime time and late-night schedule over to science fiction films in general, and visions of the future in particular. Among them tonight is one of the newest movies TCM has shown: Steven Spielberg’s 2002 thriller, starring Tom Cruise and based on a story by Philip K. Dick, who also gave us the story that was turned into Blade Runner.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: It’s about time. Bill Maher is back for a new season, just as President Obama is jockeying for approval of his plan to punish Syria for using chemical weapons, Colorado is awash with what headlines are calling “biblical rainfall,” and Miley Cyrus has managed to spark media outrage on two different occasions within a single week. Welcome back, Bill. Have a great time. And viewers should, too, since tonight’s scheduled guests include the always quotable journalist and author Matt Taibbi (once a Real Time correspondent) and – as perhaps the perfect guy to talk about climate change – Bill Nye, known to a generation of TV viewers as Bill Nye the Science Guy.

 
  
 
 

Syfy, 10:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: Season 4 of this Stephen King-inspired series jumps forward six months in time, enough time to have cleaned up after the mysterious meteor shower than rained down upon the small town of Haven in last season’s finale – and somehow made off with Audrey (Emily Rose). Apparently, she’s been missing ever since, but a mercurial new character, played by Colin Ferguson from Eureka, tracks her down in another town. Or, at least, someone who looks just like her, but who claims to be not an officer of the law absent from Haven, but a waitress with a different name, and a completely different past and life.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.