THURSDAY
OCTOBER 18
2018

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

Can a planetarium have too many stars? Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar) thinks so – because in tonight’s new episode, “The Planetarium Collision,” he goes out of his way to avoid having to share hosting chores there with Wolowitz (Simon Helberg). The problem, dear Brutus…

 
  
 
 

ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET

This ­Peanuts animated special, second only to A Charlie Brown Christmas in terms of holiday-special Charles M. Schulz perfection, has Linus, once again, anchoring the show with his big heart, sincere beliefs, and unshakeable faith. This time he’s waiting in a pumpkin patch for a sign of the Great Pumpkin – while, elsewhere, Charlie Brown makes his first animated try at kicking that football, with Lucy as the reliably unreliable ball holder. Aaargh! Fifty-two years after it was first televised by CBS, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown still delights.

 
  
 
 

TBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

Yesterday’s Game 4 was an exciting one, with the lead changing hands several times, and with the Boston Red Sox finally taking the decisive lead in the sixth. The Sox now lead the Houston Astros 3-1 in this best-of-seven American League pennant series and could move on to the World Series with a victory tonight in Game 5. Or lose, and the contest becomes a lot tighter.

 
  
 
 

NBC, 8:30 p.m. ET

How many different realities, and identities, can this show pull out of its philosophical hat? At least one more: At the end of last week’s episode, Michael (Ted Danson) was caught by the people whose memories he had wiped and whose destinies he had altered – caught, specifically, having a much too revelatory conversation with his assistant Janet (D’Arcy Carden). So how did he explain their discussion, and the interdimensional door behind them, in last week’s cliffhanger? By telling the truth. Well, a new truth, which actually was a lie, but which everyone eagerly accepted as truth. Michael was now FBI Special Agent Rick Justice, and Janet was his partner in crimesolving, Lisa “Frenchie” Fuqua. Tonight, Justice prevails…

 
  
 
 

CBS, 9:30 p.m. ET

David Costabile is one of my favored featured players in two of my favorite current series: He plays Bobby Axelrod’s right-hand man, Mike “Wags” Wagner, on Showtime’s Billions, and also plays Gale Boetticher, the chemist who appeared on Breaking Bad and has popped up in the most recent episodes of AMC’s prequel series, Better Call Saul. (He’s also appeared, as a regular, on The Wire, Flight of the Conchords and Damages. What a resumé!) And on tonight’s Murphy Brown, Costabile plays a Steve Bannon-type character, a former White House staffer whom Murphy (Candice Bergen) is asked to book for a headline-generating confrontational interview.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.