Epix, 8:00 p.m. ET
According to press reports, Madonna’s 2012 live “MDNA” show was the biggest-selling concert tour of the year (perhaps because she saved money by eliminating three of the letters from “MADONNA” in its title). Considering that her infamous Truth or Dare concert documentary film was 22 years ago, it’s impressive, in a way, that she’s still mounting concerts with an eye to shock, with oversized theatrics, and with an approach that stresses style and visuals above all. The direction is more like misdirection, focusing on the wrong things at the wrong time, but you have to acknowledge that Madonna is working very hard, whether she’s firing a prop gun while singing “Shot my lover in the head” or spinning a baton while dressed as a cheerleader for “Express Yourself.” Put it this way: She’s 54, and still staging her shows like an aerobics workout and dressing like a pop star. And, for one number, like a virgin. “Three decades is a long time to have a job,” she says at one point. Especially her kind of job: pop star.
HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET
Anna Kendrick stars in this 2012 musical comedy, about a new college arrival who joins the school’s a cappella group and encourages it to revamp and modernize its approach before the next big competition. Yes, it sounds like a big-screen Glee, but the real glee here is found from the performances of the young women in this mismatched choir – especially Rebel Wilson (left in photo) in the breakout role of “Fat Amy.”
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
John Ford’s 1956 Western is brilliant, epic, and very, very dark. John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter play two men on a long, dangerous search to find a young girl taken by a band of Indians who slaughtered her family. What sounds like a standard search-and-rescue mission turns out to be anything but, and its unexpected layers, like Wayne’s uncharacteristically nuanced performance, make The Searchers a haunting, stirring Western. Natalie Wood co-stars.
TNT, 8:00 p.m. ET
Red 2 hits theaters in mid-July, and a look at this 2010 original, Red, shows why planning a sequel was such an obvious good move. RED is an acronym for Retired, Extremely Dangerous, and the plot finds a reason to unite former agents from various intelligence agencies – played by a deliciously varied cast of “aging” actors. Bruce Willis is an actor you’d expect in this sort of movie, but Morgan Freeman? John Malkovich? Helen Mirren? She, especially, brandishes her weapons with the delight of a veteran actress finally allowed to play action hero – and that delight is infectious.
ABC, 9:00 p.m. ET
SERIES RETURN: Just like Zero Hour, which precedes it, this is a canceled ABC series whose remaining produced episodes are being burned off, on Saturday nights, during the summer months. So consider this Zero Hour Plus One – and watch only if you were still watching this disappointing, meandering, demonic drama when ABC pulled it from the schedule last November. Where did we leave off? Jane (Rachael Taylor) was having increasingly disturbing dreams. Seven months later, she still is…