MONDAY
JULY 14
2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

CBS, 8:30 p.m. ET

If you watched last night’s Season 2 premiere of Showtime’s Masters of Sex, you saw some amazingly haunting dramatic work by Allison Janney as Margaret Scully, concerned wife of closeted homosexual played by Beau Bridges. That was last night. Tonight she’s featured opposite Anna Faris in a repeat of this CBS sitcom, portraying the playfully broad comic character of Bonnie Plunkett, an outrageous recovering-alcoholic mom – and recent grandmother. Two very, very different roles, and Janney was just nominated for an Emmy for both of them. For Masters of Sex, she’s up as Guest Actress, and here, she’s up for Supporting Actress. And, for the record, both nominations are well-deserved.

 
  
 
 

CW, 8:30 p.m. ET

This is not a recommendation – just a note. As summer series go, this new CW effort at least reflects what a lot of its young viewers may actually be doing this summer in real life. Noah Reid plays Ryan, and Dillon Casey portrays Brandon, two young men who find themselves backpacking across Europe (in tonight’s pilot, it’s to try and find Ryan’s fiancé). Produced on location in various cities overseas, this modern road-trip series (a sort of I Spy with tennis, or intrigue) might be more satisfying to watch if the characters wouldn’t get in the way – of the scenery.

 
  
 
 

Fox, 9:00 p.m. ET

SERIES FINALE: Technically, this may be the season finale, because 24 has presented its series finale once before – only to come back from the TV dead to, as its subtitle proclaims, Live Another Day.  But tonight’s culminating episode of this 2014 story line differs from all others in the 24 canon in that it includes at least one non-consecutive time shift, jumping to another point in time as in most other dramas. Even the episode’s title reflects this: “Day 9: 10:00 PM – 11:00 AM.” And in these final hours – 12 of them, crammed into one final installment – Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) has a chance to, once again, save the world.

 
  
 
 

CBS, 10:00 p.m. ET

Last week’s episode featured lots and lots of butterflies, as well as lots of close shaves. There’s a close shave in tonight’s episode as well – when Big Jim (Dean Norris) goes to the barber shop. Though there are many cutthroat characters imprisoned under the dome, don’t expect a cut throat to be the result of this particular encounter. The character played by Norris, who moved here straight from Breaking Bad, means too much to this town – and, specifically, to this show.

 
  
 
 

PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET

The subject of this documentary is New Orleans, and this program might as well be an unofficial episode of HBO’s Treme. It’s about local politics, racial tensions and corruption in that city, three of David Simon’s favorite topics, in Treme as well as in his previous TV series, the classic The Wire. In this case, in real life, tonight’s POV is about the re-election campaign of Stacy Head, who’s already served in her city council seat, but is finding opposition to her bid for another term. One reason? She’s white, in an area traditionally represented by African-Americans. Check local listings.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.