FRIDAY
OCTOBER 20
2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

TELEMOVIE PREMIERE:  This new made-for-Netflix is the latest in this year’s aggressive resurgence of movie and TV adaptations of works by Stephen King. This one, based on his novella, is set in that year and in the years afterward, showing the long-term effects of a plot by a farmer and his son to kill someone close to them. It’s part The Tell-Tale Heart (with its tale of madness after murder) and, with its abundance of rats, a bit like another Edgar Allan Poe short story, The Pit and the Pendulum. Thomas Jane (pictured) and Dylan Schmid play the farmer and his son, with Molly Parker as the farmer’s wife and Neal McDonough as an enviably wealthy neighbor. 1922 plays like an extended episode of Tales from the Crypt – and if approached that way, is lots of fun.

 
  
 
 

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE:  The disclaimer that should go with this new documentary is right in the title. That’s because this is the story of Kate Del Castillo, the Mexican actress who accompanied American actor Sean Penn on that controversial 2015 meeting with drug dealer Joaquin Guzman Loera, a.k.a. the infamous El Chapo. Penn’s account was published in Rolling Stone the day after El Chapo was located and captured by authorities. Penn has maintained he never cooperated with law enforcement to lead them to El Chapo, but Del Castillo, in her account, suggests otherwise. Penn, after seeing a rough cut of this documentary, threatened to sue – but here it is.

 
  
 
 

Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET

The New York Yankees made it to the postseason this year by barely qualifying for a wild-card game, then beating the Minnesota Twins 8-4, giving them the chance to play against the Cleveland Indians in a best-of-five American League division series. The Yankees dropped the first two games, putting the team against the wall once again – but the Yankees swept the next three games to take the series 3-2, and advance them to this current series for the AL pennant, the American League Championship Series, against the Houston Astros. The Astros took the first two games, both of them tight 2-1 affairs. But the Yankees then swept the next three games – and if the team is similarly successful in tonight’s Game 6, the Yankees will win the best-of-seven series and complete its improbable, undeniably exciting march to the 2017 World Series.

 
  
 
 

CW, 8:00 p.m. ET

Last week, in the Season 3 premiere, Rebecca (Rachel Bloom) came back from her jilted-at-the-altar fiasco with a dramatic new look and a questionably thirst for revenge. She’s abandoned some of those plans, but not others – and her revenge quest continues tonight, with even more songs for (and from) jilted lovers.

 
  
 
 

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

Speaking of songs, tonight’s Great Performances is a PBS broadcast premiere of a live Broadway performance: the Roundabout Theatre Company revival of She Loves Me, previously televised last year on BroadwayHD’s live pay-per-view and streaming service. It’s based on the same story as You’ve Got Mail and The Shop Around the Corner, and stars Zachary Levi and Laura Benanti (pictured), with several scenes stolen by Jane Krakowski. Check local listings.

 
  
 
 

Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET

This week’s focus of this grim but meaningful documentary series: the 2013 shooting at the Washington, D.C. Navy Yard.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

Among tonight’s guests: James Carville, Daryl Davis and Margaret Hoover.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.