FRIDAY
JUNE 22
2018

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

MOVIE PREMIERE: This new Netflix premiere of a 2016 fact-based movie is based on the memoir by Susannah Cahalan, a young reporter for The New York Post who began to suffer symptoms – seizures, blackouts, memory loss – that baffled doctors and disrupted her work and home life. Chloe Grace Moretz stars as Susannah – and since I worked at the Post for six years a long, long time ago, I can say they at least got the general newsroom atmosphere right.

 
  
 
 

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: The expansive universe of Marvel Comics TV series on Netflix is an ambitious but mixed bag: Daredevil is quite good, Iron Fist is quite bad, and Luke Cage, which returns today with a new season, is somewhere in between.  The best of all these shows is Marvel’s Jessica Jones, which transcends the genre with its character study of an emotionally scarred and wounded woman (played so well by Krysten Ritter) with enhanced abilities she doesn’t even want.  Jessica Jones and Daredevil both take place in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen; Luke Cage, starring Mike Colter in the title role, is set farther uptown, in Harlem. All these characters, along with Luke Cage and others, met for The Defenders, and displayed their relative strengths, as characters and actors, in that temporary team-up. At the end of it, Luke had embraced his identity as a local hero – and his sidekick Misty, played by Simone Messick, was severely wounded but not killed. For Season 2 of Luke Cage, they’re both back – as is Alfre Woodward, one of my long-time favorite actresses, playing the show’s very formidable primary villain. For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.

 
  
 
 

Various Networks, 8:00 a.m. ET

The first game televised today is shown on Fox Sports 1, and is between two Group E teams still looking for their first wins: Brazil and Costa Rica (Costa Rica lost to Serbia, while the heavily favored Brazil tied with Switzerland). At 11 a.m. ET, the action switches to the Fox broadcast network, with Group D teams Nigeria and Iceland battling. Iceland, one of the surprise Davids in a tournament of Goliaths, managed a tie in its first game against the powerful Argentina (pictured), and hopes to advance with a win today. Then, at 2 p.m. ET, it’s another Group E game, with group leader Serbia facing Switzerland.

 
  
 
 

Syfy, 8:00 p.m. ET

Season 4 of 12 Monkeys continues to roll out in generous fashion, with episodes four through six of its final season premiering tonight in a mini-marathon. And while last week’s three episodes set the stage for the various Splinter time travelers to divide and (hope to) conquer, this week’s episode have them charging bravely into the past – including, among other locations, to the wild wild West.

 
  
 
 

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: This is both an old and a new season of The Great British Baking Show on PBS, which is confusing but wonderful news. And now, an explanation: In England, when this delightful, oddly soothing baking competition show premiered on the BBC, it was televised under the title The Great British Bake Off, with its secret weapon being effusive and oh-so-British judge Mary Berry. After a handful of seasons, the increasingly popular series transferred to Britain’s Channel 4, dumping the original hosts – and Berry as well. PBS is billing the new season of Baking Show as “Season 5,” but it actually predates any of the ones shown thus far by PBS (or, for that matter, on Netflix, where curated episodes begin with the 2013 season). In fact, it’s actually the third, 2012 season shown on Bake Off, so Berry is back, which is Berry, Berry good news. Check local listings. For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.

 
  
 
 

HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET

Among Maher’s guests this week: TV host Colion Noir and radio host and author Michael Smerconish. The latter, by the way, has impeccable and impressively obscure tastes in TV: I’ve been a guest on his show, and his questions and opinions regarding television were way, way above the norm.

 
  
 
 

BBC America, 11:00 p.m. ET

Among tonight’s guests: Ocean’s 8 stars Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, and (pictured) Sarah Paulson and Rhianna.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.