FRIDAY

JULY 18

2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Every time TCM shows Lawrence of Arabia, I put it in Best Bets – and why not? David Lean’s 1962 masterpiece is indeed an epic, in every sense of the word. And only TCM, usually, shows this lengthy movie the way it should be shown, uninterrupted and with the proper screen ratio. Peter O’Toole is every bit as charismatic, contrary and cool as the real T.E. Lawrence was reported to be – and there’s a certain symmetry that actor Omar Sharif gets to play a character named Sherif. Also co-starring: Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, and those stunning, seemingly endless Arabian deserts.

LEE DANIELS' THE BUTLER

Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET

Any movie that casts both Oprah Winfrey and Mariah Carey is scoring in the red on the Diva Meter – but the central focus of this 2013 drama, based on fact (sometimes very loosely based), is Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines, who as a White House butler served eight different Presidents. (Winfrey plays his wife.) And though they’re minor roles, the Presidents who are portrayed by actors rather then represented in news footage are played by such familiar faces as Robin Williams (portraying Dwight D. Eisenhower), James Marsden (John F. Kennedy), Liev Schreiber (Lyndon Baines Johnson), John Cusack (Richard M. Nixon) and Alan Rickman (Ronald Reagan). Lee Daniels directs.

AUSTENLAND

Starz!, 9:00 p.m. ET

This 2013 movie premise doesn’t just scream “chick flick.” It howls it like a banshee – a banshee obsessed with Pride and Prejudice and other things Jane Austen. Keri Russell, showing a much softer side than she has in FX’s The Americans, plays a single woman who decides to travel abroad to attend a British holiday resort catering to literary and movie fans who want to wallow in an approximation of the worlds generated by author Austen. But the approach here is as much satiric and reverent, which may or may not help this particular dose of romcom go down any more easily. JJ Field and Flight of the Conchords singer-songwriter Bret McKenzie co-star.

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

On tonight’s show, the guests include Nate Silver (the statistician who’s said some eye-opening things when he’s visited Maher in the past) and Star Trek veteran George Takei, who once memorably roasted William Shatner by giving him a tip on how to correctly pronounce his former co-star’s last name, after decades of getting it wrong. “It’s Ta-KAY!,” Takei (shown here) told Shatner with measurable irritation in his voice. “You know… like toupee!”

THE STRAIN

FX, 11:00 p.m. ET

If you missed the opener of this new FX series last Sunday, here’s a convenient chance to catch up. And you should, because The Strain is a TV ride worth taking – and a story that introduces some innovative variations on the vampire theme. Guillermo del Toro not only directed this pilot, but he and Chuck Hogan, who collaborated on the novels on which The Strain is based, co-wrote this opening script as well. Corey Stoll stars. For a full review, see Bianculli’s Blog.

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3694 Comments

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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.

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BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET

Starz!, 9:00 p.m. ET

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

FX, 11:00 p.m. ET

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