FRIDAY

OCTOBER 19

2018

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

Amazon Prime Video, 3:00 a.m. ET

Today Amazon unveils the third installment of Matthew Weiner’s anthology series The Romanoffs – and this one is a must-see for fans of his previous series, Mad Men. Christina Hendricks, who played Joan in that superb series, stars here as Elaine Rogers, a movie star hired – ready for some major meta? – to star in a TV miniseries called The Romanovs. In this show within the show, her director, Jacqueline Gerard, is a former actress herself, and she’s played by the dizzyingly talented actress Isabelle Huppert. Jacqueline treats Elaine much like Alfred Hitchcock is reputed to have treated some of his leading ladies, which leads to the conflict, and maybe even the horror, in this stand-alone story.

THE MAKING OF A MURDERER

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: Today Netflix drops Season 2 of this documentary series, continuing the controversial story that was begun back in 2015. It involves the case – actually, the cases – of Steven Avery, who was imprisoned after being convicted in 1985 of a brutal physical attack, then exonerated by DNA evidence and released, and then, in 2005, convicted of murder. The first season of The Making of a Murderer cast lots of doubt about that second arrest and conviction – and this follow-up documentary deals with everything that has occurred since the first Netflix telecast, including some of the doubts cast upon some of the doubters.

MARVEL'S DAREDEVIL

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: Next to Marvel’s Jessica Jones, this series easily is the best effort from Netflix’s multi-show presentation of some of the more ignored corners of the Marvel superhero universe. Charlie Cox stars as Matt Murdock, a blind attorney who, thanks to radioactively bestowed supersensory powers that complement his infirmity, dresses up as a costumed superhero to fight crime in his neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen. Last seen at the conclusion of Marvel’s The Defenders, another of Netflix’s Marvel crossover series, Murdock was barely alive, and barely interested in maintaining his nocturnal activities as a crimefighter. But in Season 3, the major villain Daredevil bested and imprisoned in Season 1, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. the Kingpin, returns (pictured), which means Daredevil might have to, also. And added to the cast this season: Joanne Whalley, who will forever be remembered (at least by me) as Nurse Mills in the 1986 British miniseries The Singing Detective. For a full review, see David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower.

2018 NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

Fox Sports 1, 8:30 p.m. ET

Tonight is Game 6, with the Los Angeles Dodgers enjoying a 3-2 edge in pennant-race games over the Milwaukee Brewers. If the Dodgers win tonight, they repeat as National League champions, and proceed for the second straight year to the World Series. If the Brewers win, they tie the series at three games apiece, and force a deciding Game 7 tomorrow night.

SHAKESPEARE UNCOVERED

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

Once again this week, this series presents a pair of episodes, each featuring an actor explaining some of the intricacies, and relevancies, of a particular play by William Shakespeare. The first play discussed tonight is Measure for Measure, hosted by actress Romola Garai (pictured), who links one of the lines – spoken by a man who mockingly sweeps aside any concerns about a woman’s testimony being believed – to very recent events in the #MeToo movement: “Who will believe thee, Isabel?” And the second play is Julius Caesar, hosted by Brian Cox – and again, lots of its politics are unbelievably, and unsettlingly, timely. Check local listings.

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s episode of Real Time is a special one. Specifically, it’s an anniversary special, acknowledging not only the 15^th anniversary of Real Time on HBO, but 25 years, reaching back to the 1993 Comedy Central debut of Politically Incorrect, of Maher hosting a current events-related talk and comedy show. Politically Incorrect and Maher went to ABC in 1997 (pictured), and his series was cancelled, infamously, in 2002, the year before Maher bounced back on HBO with Real Time. Highlights from all 25 years will be shown here – and one of them, I’m sure, will be Maher’s Real Time show the week before the 2016 presidential election, in which Maher’s show was one of the few TV program anywhere to predict a victory by Donald Trump in the coming election.

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2801 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

Amazon Prime Video, 3:00 a.m. ET

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

Fox Sports 1, 8:30 p.m. ET

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

David Bianculli

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