SATURDAY
JULY 19
2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

BBC America, 7:00 p.m. ET

On the heels of the deliriously wonderful news that NBC has hired Christopher Walken to play Captain Hook in its upcoming live telecast of the musical Peter Pan, this seems the right time to give another look to Steven Spielberg’s 1991 version of the classic children’s story. This version starred Robin Williams as a grown-up lawyer with a Peter Pan soul, so to speak, and featured Julia Roberts as a punk-haired Tinker Bell. But since, right now, it’s fair to think ahead to the NBC version, pay particular attention to Dustin Hoffman as Hook – especially his pirate outfit. Those boots were made for Walken…

 
  
 
 

HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET

In this 2013 comedy co-written by Vince Vaughn, Vaughn and Owen Wilson star as hard-pressed salesmen who decide to chase a new dream, and a new career, by applying for the highly competitive internship track at Google. It’s like a companion piece to Mike Judge’s Silicon Valley, but featuring Rose Byrne as the female lead. Byrne is an interesting acting chameleon: She can be relentlessly dark, as in her starring role opposite Glenn Close in TV’s Damages, or confidently playful, as with her self-obsessed British pop-star, Jackie Q, in the Russell Brand-Jonah Hill comedy, Get Him to the Greek. Here, she’s on the lighter aside again, and injects some spark into what could have been an utterly thankless girlfriend role.

 
  
 
 

CBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

Two new episodes of this series are shown tonight – and on summer Saturdays, that counts as at least an option.  And in the first episode, in which Meredith (Ari Graynor) finds and claims money that was lost by Ginny (Kristin Davis) but earmarked as a school-trip fund, the guest star is Colin Hanks, fresh from Fargo.

 
  
 
 

Smithsonian, 9:00 p.m. ET

This new Smithsonian program documents the long-ago period when air travel was glamorous, from the spacious seats and elegantly served meals to the individual service and beautiful stewardesses. Some of today’s flight attendants, as they prefer to be called these days, are just as attractive and attentive – hey, I have a flight scheduled very soon, so why risk payback? – but the glitz, like the seat size, has shrunken notably since the early jetliner era recalled in this show.

 
  
 
 

BBC America, 10:00 p.m. ET

This installment is the most ripe for cross-cultural sarcasm, because fake royals Georgie (Ed Gamble) and Poppy (Amy Hoggart) descend upon Washington, D.C. They’re confused, initially, in their sightseeing quest for the White House, because a lot of the houses look white. And when these faux royals begin chatting up and querying some actual Washington politicians – well, it’s like The Daily Show with a British accent. Which, I guess, makes it exactly like The Daily Show last summer, when John Oliver took over temporarily, and very capably, for Jon Stewart.
 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.