SATURDAY
SEPTEMBER 26
2015

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

getTV, 2:00 p.m. ET

If you just watched the premiere of NBC’s new Blindspot, a drama series about a woman who emerges from a giant duffel bag in Times Square with no memory of her identity or past, and thought: “Wow, that’s new!” – well, not really. In the 1965 Western series A Man Called Shenandoah, Robert Horton (from Wagon Train) played a man, shot and left for dead in the Wild West, who gives himself the name of Shenandoah and roams the territory searching for clues to his identity, and who may have wanted him dead. Okay, so he doesn’t have any tattoos, but you have to admit, it’s close. And it’s not the only TV series based on an amnesiac premise. I can think of two others – but ironically, and fittingly, I can’t recall their names. In any event, getTV presents 10 episodes of A Man Called Shenandoah, which to my knowledge has never before been televised since its original one-season run. To find out how and where to get getTV, visit the getTV website.
 
  
 
 

HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET

The Laura Hillenbrand biography upon which this 2014 movie is based was a wonderful, well-researched read. The movie version, directed by Angelina Jolie and with a screenplay whose collaborators include Joel and Ethan Coen and Richard LaGravenese, is dramatic and earnest – though not, in some sections, as vividly wrenching as the original author’s powerful prose about Louis Zamperini, whose stories as a competitive runner, a WWII fighter plane crewman and a prisoner of war are individually gripping, and collectively amazing and inspiring. Jack O’Connell portrays Zamperini, with composer and actor Miyavi as Zamperini’s cruel Japanese captor.
 
  
 
 

BBC America, 9:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: This is part two of the opening episode of Season 9 in this show’s modern era. Last week’s episode started with a typically imaginative and creepy image: a “hand mine” field of human-like hands that emerge from the ground, grab the ankles of people walking in the field, and pull them below ground. What was even more unsettling, though, came later: the deaths of two familiar female characters at the hands of the Daleks. (Well, not the hands. Daleks have no hands, at least not externally. Hold your emails.)  The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) went back in time to try to correct this tragedy, and tonight we’ll find out whether he’s successful in that endeavor.
 
  
 
 

TCM, 10:15 p.m. ET

What a great movie: Jack Nicholson starred in this Milos Forman film version of the Ken Kesey novel, and his performance solidified his “Jack Nicholson” screen persona and charisma in the process. Louise Fletcher is fabulous as well, and there’s a particular joy in watching the then-unknown players who portray members of the mental institution in which Nicholson’s Randall McMurphy finds himself. Look! There’s Christopher Lloyd! And Danny DeVito! And Brad Dourif! And… Just watch. And try not to think that it’s been 40 years since this movie was released.
 
  
 
 

HBO, 12:00 a.m. ET

Speaking of movie anniversaries, another movie that came out 40 years ago, getting a special television telecast tonight, is the 1975 cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show – shown by HBO, quite appropriately, as a midnight movie. That’s how, in theaters, this musical movie comedy went from initial obscurity to major cult status, as young audiences gathered to sing along, dress along, and do the time warp again. Tim Curry stars, with support from such future stars as Susan Sarandon (pictured), Barry Bostwick, Meat Loaf and others.
 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.