FRIDAY
JULY 14
2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: In the opening sequence, the words of this comedy’s title come up one at a time – so for a second, the first thing you see is a sitcom named Friends. But though Netflix would love for you to confuse this with that classic comedy – after all, it’s about a half-dozen friends who seemingly can’t stop hanging out together, despite other relationships in their lives – there’s no way. In Friends from College, the college is Harvard, the graduates are getting together in New York 20 years later, and they all seem aggressively self-centered. Imagine Friends as populated by the characters from Seinfeld, and you’ll be close. Imagine some of them having vocal sex or secret affairs with one another, and you’ll be closer. But why would you want to be? This sitcom employs some talented performers I really like a lot: Fred Savage from The Wonder Years, Cobie Smulders from How I Met Your Mother, Keegan-Michael Key from Key & Peele, and such supporting players as Greg Germann from Ally McBeal. But only Germann and Savage elicit the right amount of empathy and humor. For the rest, it’s nothing more than Alumni Behaving Badly, and not really worth the time.

 
  
 
 

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: This documentary is commendably aggressive in its approach. It shows the majestic beauty, color and variety of coral reefs around the world – then shows ones that are dead or dying, in a compare-and-contrast exercise that is little short of mortifying. But rather than be all doom and gloom, Chasing Coral suggests what can be done next – especially by young people willing to help, in both documenting and improving those crucial undersea worlds.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Wednesdays and Fridays this month, TCM is working its way through “50 Years of Hitchcock” – and I’ve seen most of them, and recorded the rest, because I’ve never seen them in order like this. What a treat. What a showcase, Tonight, the tribute continues, with 1943’s Shadow of a Doubt at 8 p.m. ET, 1944’s Lifeboat (10 p.m. ET), 1945’s Spellbound (midnight ET), 1946’s Notorious (2:15 a.m. ET), and 1948’s The Paradine Case (4:15 a.m. ET). Watch, in particular, for the Salvador Dali dream sequences in Notorious, and, of course, for Alfred Hitchcock’s playful cameo appearances in each and every film. How, for example, does he show up in Lifeboat, which is set entirely upon a cramped lifeboat adrift at sea? See the accompanying picture.

 
  
 
 

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s episode involves “Botanicals,” and how hard can the challenges be? After all, the contestants all will be baking with… flower. 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.