TUESDAY
JANUARY 16
2018

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

BBC America, 6:00 a.m. ET

Blue Planet II, premiering this Saturday on BBC America, is one of those astounding TV events to make special plans to watch, record, and treasure. I can’t quite wrap my head around the new technology, and infinite patience, that allowed the filmmakers to catch such glorious, jaw-dropping images and events. BBC America is doing its best to get viewers involved in advance, by repeating, in daily marathons, its best nature documentary series of this century to date. Yesterday, the network repeated the original Blue Planet miniseries, from 2002. Today, beginning at 6 a.m. ET and again at 6:50 p.m. ET, it’s showing all episodes of its Planet Earth nature documentary series from 2007. And it’s actually better than the first time around – because back then, Discovery made the bone-headed, xenophobic decision to replace the narration by Sir David Attenborough with new narration recorded by Sigourney Weaver. Now, I love Sigourney as much as the next guy – but not when the next guy is the premier nature documentarian on the planet. Tonight’s Planet Earth repeats feature the original Attenborough narration, so dive in without reservation. And once you dive in, I expect you won’t resurface for hours. It’s that good.

 
  
 
 

NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET

Everything about this prime-time game show screamed “hit” before it arrived, and nothing since then has slowed or deterred that momentum and prediction. With Ellen DeGeneres at its center, interacting with frighteningly animated contestants and relying on bigger-budget versions of some of her daytime show’s popular goofy games, Ellen’s Game of Games couldn’t miss. And it hasn’t.
 
  
 
 

CW, 9:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: Black Lightning, based on a DC Comics superhero from the 1970s, is the fifth CW prime-time drama based on characters from the DC universe, after Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. (Shouldn’t The CW just give in at this point, and rename itself The DC?) Cress Williams stars, and Black Lightning is a superhero who’s markedly different. For one thing, he’s not a coming-of-age teen just learning to marshal his powers: In his civilian life he’s a middle-age school principal and the father of two daughters. Oh, and he’s African-American, which in the Seventies in the comics, as on TV today, is unusual for a superhero. For full reviews, see Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes and David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.
 
  
 
 

NBC, 10:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s episode is called “Clooney,” and has Kate shopping for a wedding dress. Infer from that what you will...

 

 
  
 
 
 
 
Read and add comments HERE for today's Best Bets!
 
 
 
 
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Dave Bianculli
Hey sweetie-pie,

WTF does this have to do with the greatest invention known to mankind: TV?????

Go away.

Warmly,

Dave
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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.