MONDAY
JUNE 18
2018

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

AMC, 9:00 p.m. ET

Last week’s third episode of Dietland, while still very, very early in the narrative voyage for this series, established without question just how weird, unpredictable and provocative it was willing to be. The series caught and held my interest, initially, because of the hilariously icy portrayal by The Good Wife favorite Julianna Margulies as a Devil Wears Prada-type fashion media editrix. But it’s the journey of the show’s eager-to-change protagonist, Joy Nash’s Plum, that has taken center stage, and taken over, in a very noteworthy way. Plum, initially pursuing a prescribed path of physical and emotional self-improvement, has gone cold turkey off her former regimen of medications, making her vulnerable to everything from hallucinations to vivid fantasies. Last week, Plum experienced both, watching a nature documentary on TV, thinking about her latest crush (private investigator Dominic, played by Adam Rothenberg), and conflating the two into a Wizard of Oz-ish lion who is anything but cowardly, and animalistically sexy. I’m pretty sure it wound up as the most bizarre yet playful depiction of hallucinatory bestiality and onanism ever shown on TV – and that was only episode three. Tonight? Episode four…

 
  
 
 

MTV, 9:00 p.m. ET

SPECIAL: Taped Saturday night at Santa Monica, this year’s MTV Movie and Awards Show is hosted by Tiffany Haddish (pictured), with musical performances by, among others, such pairings as Nick Jonas and Mustard (I merely report; these acts name themselves) and Chloe x Halle (ditto).  Chris Pratt is given a special award because, well, the latest Jurassic Park movie is imminent – and I list this fluffy, meaningless MTV special at all because I find it instructive to note which TV series are nominated as programs of the year. This year, those qualifying candidates are 13 Reasons Why, Game of Thrones, Grown-Ish, Riverdale and Stranger Things.

 
  
 
 

PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET

Tonight marks the TV premiere of Quest, the 2017 documentary by Jonathan Olshefski about a North Philadelphia family, shot over a decade that included and outlasted the years of the Obama administration. The passage of time, and the quiet, unobtrusive focus of the camera’s focus, takes Quest and Christine’a Rainey and family on a voyage neither they nor the viewer could have predicted. Quest is a program likely to make you laugh and gasp, smile and cry – and ponder long after you’ve pushed away from the TV. Olshefski, a first-time filmmaker, is a friend and colleague at the same Radio, TV and Film department at Rowan University where I teach, but my enthusiasm for Quest has nothing to do with that. If anything, were it any less powerful and meaningful, I might well have avoided mention of Quest simply to avoid any implied conflict of interest. But work this excellent cannot go unmentioned, or unrewarded, and the Rainey daughter (seen in this 2016 photo with the filmmaker, at far left, and her parents) is my new hero. Watch tonight’s P.O.V., and she’s bound to be yours, too. 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.