FRIDAY

AUGUST 22

2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

FXX, Check local listings

The every-episode mega-marathon of The Simpsons continues on FXX – and damned if I’m not already sucked in, dividing my attention, and my DVR, between this marathon and the Doctor Who one over on BBC America. You can’t go wrong either way – but make special plans to watch or record The Simpsons today at 4 p.m. ET, when one of the series’ very best episodes is repeated: the Season 4 classic “A Streetcar Named Marge,” in which a Springfield community theater production presents a musical version of A Streetcar Named Desire. Absolutely brilliant.

DOCTOR WHO TAKEOVER WEEK

BBC America, 8:00 a.m. ET

All day today, there are more Doctors in the house. Today is the penultimate day of the Doctor Who takeover week, and it includes a new special, at 9 p.m. ET, called Doctor Who: Earth Conquest. It follows the actor playing the imminent 12^th Doctor, Peter Capaldi, as he embarks on a seven-city, five-continent, 12-day tour to promote the new incarnation of Doctor Who. Fittingly, accompanying him on this whirlwind publicity tour is Jenna Coleman, the actress playing the Doctor’s current (and near future) traveling companion. Expect one or both of them, sometime in this hour, to suggest that they could have used a real TARDIS to make their journey easier.

PRO FOOTBALL

CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

This pre-season game, between the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts, gives viewers an early look at these two teams as they head into the 2014-15 season with big dreams and grandiose game plans. And the same can be said of CBS, which is about to present a new prime-time football franchise that it’s promoting with truly unprecedented fervor and effort. And why not, since NBC’s Sunday Night Football prime-time game was last season’s most popular TV series?

KILL YOUR DARLINGS

Starz!, 9:00 p.m. ET

Here’s an idea for a mystery movie that can’t be beat: It’s about the original Beats, and a murder in 1944 that pulls together some of the best poetic minds of its generation. Daniel Radcliffe plays a young Allen Ginsberg, Jack Huston plays Jack Kerouac, and Ben Foster plays William Burroughs.

THE KNICK

Cinemax, 10:00 p.m. ET

This episode, the third in the series, ramps the show up to a higher level, as Dr. Thackery (Clive Owen) confronts a former love who now seeks his professional help. Jennifer Ferrin plays a woman from his past who asks him to operate on her, for a type of particularly risky and grisly reconstructive surgery. What was state of the art in 1900 is almost too painful to contemplate and witness now – and watching the recovery period is no less dramatic and disturbing than the prospect of the operation itself, which seeks a passable surgical alternative to a nose that has been eaten away by syphilis.

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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

FXX, Check local listings

BBC America, 8:00 a.m. ET

CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

Starz!, 9:00 p.m. ET

Cinemax, 10:00 p.m. ET

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