MONDAY
MARCH 20
2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET

This week, The Voice moves on to the Battle Rounds competition. This used to be the low point of the series, but it’s been massaged, over the years, to make it more of a showcase duet between contestants than a grab-the-spotlight show-off fest. So there’s reason to keep watching. Other reasons include: welcoming the guest mentors aiding the various coaches (Gwen Stefani, for example, brings along Celine Dion, and Adam Levine calls on John Legend). And checking out the outfit Stefani wears for the opening Battle Round, which I can’t quite describe, but can’t quite forget, either.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

I’ve been marveling, with increasing enthusiasm, at how the actors, writers, producers and directors of the Bates Motel A&E prequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film classic Psycho have made this final season so multilayered, inspired, and entertaining. The closer the TV show gets to the timeline of the movie, the better it’s gotten – and it was good to begin with. So tonight, at a pivotal time when the TV show and movie plots finally intersect on Bates Motel, TCM prefaces that with a prime-time showing of the original Psycho, starring Janet Leigh. Watch it at 8 p.m. ET, then flip to A&E to watch Marion Crane, played by a different woman entirely, arrive at the Bates Motel…
 
  
 
 

A&E, 10:00 p.m. ET

Last week, Freddie Highmore’s Norman Bates, still grieving the death of mother Norma (Vera Farmiga), went on a quiet “date” with Madeleine (Isabelle McNally), who had invited him to her house, with her boorish husband out of town, for a home-cooked meal. She even wore some of Norma’s old clothes, which Norman had creepily given to her. But as Madeleine and Norman were preparing some cake batter together, Norman’s manifestation of Norma appeared to grab a nearby kitchen knife and slit Madeleine’s throat. From Norman’s point of view, his dead mother had killed his new girlfriend, a lookalike for his mother – but then he snapped out of it, and returned to reality, realizing that Madeleine was fine, and it was all a horrible vision. But what I wonder is: Was it? Norman is such an unreliable narrator of his own story, isn’t it possible that he, as Norma, did murder Madeleine, then prevented himself from acknowledging that reality? Tonight. we should learn the truth about that. And we’ll also have another compelling story line advancement, as Rihanna (pictured) shows up as Marion Crane, the role played by Janet Leigh in the original Psycho. Which, of course, you can and should watch tonight at 8 p.m. ET on TCM, as a very spooky appetizer to tonight’s Bates Motel main course.

 
  
 
 

AMC, 10:00 p.m. ET

SEASON FINALE: The Season 2 finale of HUMANS is presented tonight, as AMC squeezes the year’s final two episodes into one two-hour telecast. Last week, we learned that the formula to awaken the consciousness of all the synths had been completed. This week, we’ll learn whether it’s implemented – and, if it is, what consequences pulling that mental and emotional switch will have. Gemma Chan stars.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 4:00 a.m. ET

Once again, here’s another link between different Best Bets offerings tonight. HUMANS, as a TV series, both preceded the HBO series Westworld, and shared its interest in exploring the awakening of consciousness of human-like androids programmed for the amusement and convenience of humans. But HBO’s Westworld, like AMC’s HUMANS, had a much older precedent: The 1973 movie Westworld, which starred Yul Brynner as an out-of-control robot gunslinger. The movie, shown tonight late at night on TCM, was written and directed by Michael Crichton, the fertile imaginative brain that also concocted The Andromeda Strain, Coma, Jurassic Park, Twister and, believe it or not, the smash NBC medical series ER.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.