THURSDAY

JANUARY 21

2016

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

CW, 8:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: This is a warning, not a recommendation. This new series – the latest from the folks behind CW’s Arrow and The Flash – gathers together a group of supporting recurring players from those series, adds some new ones, and presents a time-travel series in which someone from the future tries to change that future, Terminator-style, by going into the past, gathering heroes and villains for a special squad, and setting out to alter the timeline. That’s the premise. The result is 30 percent obsessively staged and photographed fight scenes, 5 percent decent acting (thanks to Victor Garber, who deserves so much better), and 65 percent nonsense. The surprisingly good quality of CBS’s Supergirl, another DC Comics showcase, might make you want to check out Legends of Tomorrow. Don’t bother. For a full story, see David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower.

AMERICAN IDOL

Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET

The auditions phase ends with tonight’s two-hour installment – so after tonight, whichever contestant will end the season bookending American Idol, we’ve already seen him. Or, as is much more likely given the talent sent on to Hollywood thus far, her.

LONDON SPY

BBC America, 10:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: This new series stars Ben Wishaw, from The Hours, as a young man whose lover dies mysteriously. When he seeks to investigate his lover’s death, he finds himself investigated, and more, by what turns out to be a whole cabal of spies. One twist in this telling of what sounds like a familiar tale is that the lover is male – and many of the other twists spin out from that revelation. Jim Broadbent co-stars. For a full review, see David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower.

BASKETS

FX, 10:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: One of the executive producers of this new Zach Galifianakis series is Louis C.K., which makes perfect sense: Baskets, starring Galifianakis as a sad sack of a guy whose ambition is to be a clown in the best comedic tradition, is as much character study as comedy. But it’s fascinating. Galifianakis plays Chip Baskets, a young man who borrows money from his mom (a bizarrely cast, yet instantly endearing, Louie Anderson) to go to clown college in Paris. But he doesn’t speak French, so he fails, and instead of returning to the States with a prestigious degree, he returns with the haughty and wholly disinterested Penelope (Sabina Sciubba), who marries him only to get her green card. Back in the U.S., Chip indeed gets a job as a clown – but as a rodeo clown, in Bakersfield, where getting gored on occasion is only the least of his daily indignities. Baskets has its own rhythms, and its own sad and silent stretches which really are in the classic clown tradition. This show isn’t made to satisfy everyone’s tastes – but it sure satisfies mine. For feature stories, see David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower interviews with Zack Galifianakis and Martha Kelly. And for a full review, see Ed Bark’s Uncle Barky’s Bytes.

DARK NET

Showtime, 11:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: This half-hour documentary series, each week, looks at different aspect of what is called the “deep web” – the stuff most people can’t or don’t access, and what’s available and happening there. Proceed at your own risk – but, if you’re curious, definitely proceed.

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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

CW, 8:00 p.m. ET

Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET

BBC America, 10:00 p.m. ET

FX, 10:00 p.m. ET

Showtime, 11:00 p.m. ET

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