SATURDAY
MARCH 15
2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET

Cosmos was launched last Sunday by being shown simultaneously on every cable and broadcast network in the Fox, uh, universe. Tomorrow, that universe contracts, and episode two is shown on Fox – but if you missed the widespread premiere episode, you shouldn’t have, and tonight, Fox repeats the opener to help everyone catch up. And, of course, to amortize costs even more. Neil deGrasse Tyson hosts.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET

Baz Luhrmann, the understated director behind Moulin Rouge (I’m kidding, I’m kidding – about the understated, that is), directs this 2013 adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. Luhrmann gets some of it just right – the light across the water, the conspicuous consumption of the clothes closet – but the rest of it, from the music to the staging to even the casting, is much more open to debate. Leonardo DiCaprio stars in the enigmatic title role, with Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton as co-stars.

 
  
 
 

IFC, 8:00 p.m. ET

This 2007 thriller is one of the Coen brothers’ darkest films – and dark refers, in this case, to drama, not comedy. Tommy Lee Jones plays a weary Texas sheriff, and Josh Brolin plays an opportunistic man who happens upon a crime scene that both provides him a potential fortune and makes him a potential target. Specifically, the target of a super-creepy killer, played with icy strangeness by Javier Bardem, who won an Oscar for his performance.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Released in 1974, this was Steven Spielberg’s first movie made specifically for theaters – before that, his wonderful telemovie Duel had been made, earlier the same year, for ABC. This one stars Goldie Hawn as a fugitive hoping to reunite with her child, with an increasingly large string of lawmakers on her trail. As with Duel, the visual scope and complex action sequences are impressive, especially for such a young filmmaker. It’s no wonder young Spielberg, based on his outdoor work here and on Duel, got the nod, the following year, to direct a little film called Jaws.

 
  
 
 

BBC America, 9:00 p.m. ET

On a very slow TV night, there are worse choices than revisiting this new BBC America series, set in London just after the Jack the Ripper killings. Even in its second season, it hasn’t quite found its voice, but it keeps trying – as tonight, when it presents a based-on-fact terrorist plot that has obvious echoes to today.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.