TUESDAY
JANUARY 23
2018

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: The song “We’ll Meet Again,” popularized by British singer Vera Lynn when it was released at the start of her nation’s involvement in what would become WWII, has since been utilized to conclude two of the best pieces of entertainment ever made: Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film, Dr. Strangelove…or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, and Dennis Potter’s 1986 TV miniseries, The Singing Detective. (“We’ll meet again / Don’t know where, don’t know when…”). Now it’s used as a title of a new PBS documentary series, presented by former Today personality Ann Curry, who reunites and interviews people who met at pivotal times in history. The subject of tonight’s opening hour, fittingly, is WWII itself. For a full story, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower. Check local listings.
 
  
 
 

HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET

Part 2. Last night’s opening installment of Mosaic proved two things. One, Sharon Stone still can play a mercurial and self-confident leading role with ease and charisma. Two, director Steven Soderbergh, in filming this six-part mystery about the murder (told in show flashbacks) of a famous and successful children’s author (Stone), was caught up equally in framing his leading lady and the snow-resort architecture and scenery around her. Tonight, the narrative, the mystery, and the Architectural Digest-type photography continue.
 
  
 
 

CW, 9:00 p.m. ET

Last week’s series premiere of this newest CW superhero series based on a DC Comics character had more resonance and relevance than expected. Tonight, with the introduction of its characters and premise out of the show, Black Lightning will reveal whether it continues or abandons that commendably topical approach as regards to the racial divide in the U.S.

 
  
 
 

NBC, 9:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s episode is called “That’ll Be the Day,” and the advance promo by NBC is full of noting but happy moments, suggesting this will be a bright, cheery episode of This Is Us, with nothing sad befalling any of its characters. On this series, that’ll be the day…
 
  
 
 

Comedy Central, 10:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: Season 5 of this intoxicating (or at least intoxicated) comedy history series begins by getting three female storytellers inebriated, then getting them to tell the stories of three heroines: Revolutionary War soldier Deborah Sampson (who joined the Army disguised as a man), art preserver Rose Valland (who rescued stolen art from the Nazis), and nurse Clara Barton (who founded the American Red Cross). Those drunken narratives are then re-enacted, digressions and belches and all…

 
  
 
 

FX, 10:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: This isn’t the first rodeo for Chip Baskets (Zach Galifianakis) – he started on this series taking a demeaning job as a rodeo clown. But as Season 3 begins tonight on FX, it’s the first rodeo Chip has managed to manage. Along with his twin brother Dale (also played, of course, by the delightfully deadpan Galifianakis) and their doting yet irritating mom (played, Emmy-winningly, by Louie Anderson), they’re now reviving and running the Bakersfield rodeo that had once hired, humiliated and fired Chip. But that was when the Chip was down. Now he’s the boss… one of them, anyway. For a full review, see Eric Gould's The Cold Light Reader.
 
  
 
 

WGN America, 10:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: In this new series, Bellevue isn’t the name of a famous insane asylum. It’s the name of a small town – and like many small towns on TV, is the site of a particularly grisly and haunting murder. In this case, literally, it’s about a high school hockey star with gender issues, whose death echoes that of a case from 20 years before. Tackling the mystery, and her own memories of decades before, is detective Annie Ryder – played by Anna Paquin, the former True Blood star, continuing a string of recent TV returns, begun last year with roles in the miniseries Alias Grace and the anthology series Electric Dreams.

 
  
 
 

Comedy Central, 10:30 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: Season 3 of this bawdy little Comedy Central period series begins with Natasha Leggero and Riki Lindhome, as pampered citizens of the early American era, continuing to tackle old norms with idiotic and self-absorbed approaches. Today, the episode is called “Congress,” and the Bellacourt sisters fight for suffrage. Or set it back.
 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.