FRIDAY
OCTOBER 17
2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

Fox, 9:00 p.m. ET

In a same-week repeat of Monday’s episode, Jim Gordon gets closer to the truth about the seediness pervading Gotham – but farther away from his wife, after a tense argument. Meanwhile, the seductive and evil Mooney opens her nightclub to auditions, because she’s seeking a seductive and evil minion of her own. It was TV worth watching Monday, and the same goes for Friday.

 
  
 
 

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

It’s no longer summertime, but tonight it’s time for “Summertime.” The PBS Fall Arts Festival presents the San Francisco Opera’s rendition of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, starring Eric Owens as Porgy and Laquita Mitchell as Bess. The musical with an all-black cast, based on the play by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward and with music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin, opened on Broadway in 1935 – and was performed there, most recently, in a Tony-winning 2012 revival starring Norm Lewis and Audra McDonald. Now we get to see how the West Coast performs it, in a TV production that can be considered very Off-Off-Broadway. Check local listings.

 
  
 
 

Cinemax, 10:00 p.m. ET

SEASON FINALE: This compelling, hit-the-ground-running series – the first genuine quality hit from Cinemax – completes its first season, with a momentum that ought to carry it easily into Season 2. For a full review of the series, see Eric Gould’s Cold Light Reader.
 
  
 
 

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

Bill Maher’s guests tonight are of secondary importance. The real headline is how he’ll handle recent headlines in his monologue – not headlines about the Ebola virus, or the latest midterm election tactics, but headlines related to his most recent Real Time show. That’s the one in which Ben Affleck took umbrage to remarks by author Sam Harris and by Maher himself, leading to a very heated discussion about Muslims and bigotry. This is one live monologue that will have lots of people paying close attention – even executives at HBO.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 11:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: “Eight cities, eight episodes, eight songs.” Dave Grohl, formerly of Nirvana and now of Foo Fighters, concocted an absurdly ambitious concept for the group’s next album. Record each song in a different studio, in a different city – and don’t write the song until you get to that city, absorbing its culture while retelling the history of its local music scene. And he emerged not only with Sonic Highways the album, but Sonic Highways the HBO documentary series: eight episodes, each taking place in a different city as Grohl seeks out musicians, producers and musicologists, and ending with the song written in that city and performed by the Foo Fighters. Collect them all. Trade with friends.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.