SUNDAY
JUNE 19
2016

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET

One ESPN writer, in trying to put tonight’s winner-take-all Game 7 in perspective, wrote, “This is as big as sports gets.” On the one side: The Golden State Warriors, led by Stephen Curry, whose confident, long-distance style of play has changed the game of pro basketball. The Warriors are the defending NBA champions, having beaten LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers in six games last year, and also are coming off the best regular season in basketball history. The Warriors’ regular-season record was 73-9, eclipsing the former record-holding 1996 Chicago Bulls, whose record was 72-10. In this year’s postseason finals against Cleveland, the Warriors took a 2-0 lead, then a 3-1 lead. Before the Cavaliers did it Thursday night, only two teams in the history of pro basketball have ever come back from a 3-1 deficit to force a Game 7. Those teams were the 1951 New York Knicks and the 1966 Los Angeles Lakers – so it’s been 50 years. And no team down 3-1 in the finals has ever won in that crucial seventh game, which makes it look daunting for Cleveland, especially with home-court advantage reverting to the Warriors. But just as a Warriors win would cement its place in history, a Cleveland upset would do the same thing for the Cavaliers, and for James in particular. It’s been more than 50 years since any Cleveland pro sports team has won a championship, and that’s what James came back to Cleveland to accomplish. As big as sports gets? It’s certainly close…

 
  
 
 

CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

This is Episode 2 of BrainDead, the clever new summer series from Good Wife creators Robert and Michelle King. And whether or not you saw last week’s premiere, don’t sweat it: Tonight’s episode is preceded by a theme song and montage that’s actually a musical “previously on…” recap. It’s one of the cleverest, goofiest TV ideas in years and the really should tune in to experience and enjoy it. And then, of course, stay tuned and do the same thing for the rest of the hour. To hear my review on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, visit the Fresh Air website. On TVWW, see my interview with the Kings in Bianculli's Blog, and reviews of the series in Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes and David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.
 
  
 
 

Starz!, 8:00 p.m. ET

SEASON FINALE: Tonight Starz offers a double-header season finale of its Girlfriend Experience series, in which Riley Keough, Elvis Presley’s granddaughter, plays Christine, a woman who finds herself embroiled in the world of high-class escorts. In previous weeks, Christine was drummed from her “vanilla” job as an intern after videos of her having sex with her boss hit the Internet, and she was trying to rebuild and rebound from a very low and vulnerable place. Well, tonight her rebound is complete, as she commits fully to the escort industry, and to the “girlfriend experience” in particular.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s episode is called “Battle of the Bastards.” To readers of the original books, that may signal something. To me, it’s just an ironic choice for an episode televised on Father’s Day.

 
  
 
 

Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET

SEASON FINALE: Two episodes are shown back to back as tonight’s season finale – and since it amounts to a battle in which the team of friends bands together to do battle with Dracula, and save Eva Green’s Vanessa, I’d highly recommend watching them both.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.