SATURDAY
APRIL 26
2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

AMC, 7:00 p.m. ET

It’s one of my “spider web movies” – a film that will ensnare me, and have me watching it from the moment I tune in, regardless of how many times I’ve seen it, and despite the fact that I own my own pristine copy on DVD. There’s just something about this 1994 drama, starting with the performances by Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, and definitely including a prison yard scene, with opera broadcast over the loudspeakers, that qualifies as the ultimate example of Music Appreciation 101. Based on a story by Stephen King.
 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Jean Cocteau directed this 1946 version of the famous fairy tale – and his is the most beautiful, as well as the most adult, ever filmed. Josette Day plays Belle, the young woman who sacrifices herself to a beast of a man – or a man of a beast – in order to spare the life of her father. Jean Marais plays the Beast – and Cocteau’s photography is every bit as luminous and enchanting as the film’s leading lady.

 
  
 
 

BBC America, 9:00 p.m. ET

Season 2 of Orphan Black ups the ante on the conspiracy plots, and makes you wonder how many of the people around Sarah, and her various clone incarnations, can indeed be trusted. At least they have each other – except, as this season begins, they’re splitting up and facing dangers alone. Don’t they show any horror films at Clone High? Isn’t that an obvious risky move? (The rhetorical answer: Yes, as at least two of the clones will learn tonight.)

 
  
 
 

Flix, 10:10 p.m. ET

This movie, telling about the TV quiz show scandals of the 1950s, is 20 years old now, but still crackles with newness, cleverness and energy, even as it enjoys wallowing in its period details and settings. Robert Redford directed, and the screenplay is by Paul Attanasio, who also wrote the Donnie Brasco screenplay, many episodes of NBC’s Homicide: Life on the Street, and was a producer on Fox’s House, M.D.  This movie stars Ralph Fiennes as Charles Van Doren and John Turturro as Herb Stempel, the combatants on TV’s Twenty-One. Both actors give perfect performances, making it an entertaining movie indeed. Just don’t take everything that happens as being factual. The movie plays almost as loose with “reality” as the rigged quiz shows it dramatizes.

 
  
 
 

BBC America, 11:00 p.m. ET

Tonight’s guests on this new edition: Ricky Gervais, Juliette Binoche and Ronnie Corbett. Watch, in particular, for the segment in which host Norton wanders into the studio audience to see whether jokes translate easily from one language to another. An audience member tells a joke in French, sentence by sentence, while Binoche translates into English. The result? An experiment that makes Gervais laugh uproariously – but not because of the success of the translation.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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3695 Comments
 
 
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Mar 21, 2026   |  Reply
 
Dave Bianculli
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Mar 22, 2026
 
 
 
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Long-time TVWW devotee here. I manage a commercial vehicle operation and Colorado Springs Mobile Mechanic (https://coloradospringcosmobilemechanic.com) keeps our fleet going. Bianculli's picks keep us sane during maintenance delays - essential reading!
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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.