WEDNESDAY
MAY 28
2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: This dance-competition begins Season 11 tonight, with a tweak in format: After two years of pronouncing male and female winners, as in the Oscars, it’s reverting to an overall winner, as in American Idol or Dancing with the Stars. And while many of those shows have lost some of their spark over the years, So You Think You Can Dance maintains its energy levels, largely because, year in and year out, the outrageously talented contestants do the same.

 
  
 
 

Flix, 8:00 p.m. ET

Spike Jonze got rave reviews for writing and directing last year’s Her, the meditative romantic comedy-drama about a man who falls in love with his phone and computer’s personalized electronic operating system. And Jonze would have my lifelong admiration simply for directing Christopher Walken in 1999’s unforgettably creative music video by Fatboy Slim for “Weapon of Choice.” And here, in this movie made the same year as “Weapon of Choice,” Jonze directs just as audacious and brilliant a project. This one is written by Charlie Kaufman, and stars John Cusack as an artistically stubborn puppeteer who finds a portal into the mind, and thus the body, of John Malkovich, who plays himself. Also starring: Cameron Diaz and Catherine Keener. What a cast. What a concept. What a movie. And parts of it, for the record, end up at Interchange 14-C of the New Jersey Turnpike.

 
  
 
 

History, 9:00 p.m. ET

MINISERIES PREMIERE: Part 3 of 3. At 9 p.m. ET, History presents “Never Surrender,” the concluding segment of its three-night The World Wars dramatic miniseries, To see the entire miniseries in one chunk, start at 5 p.m. ET, when History will present rebroadcasts of the two-hour installments called “Trial By Fire” and “A Rising Threat.” Stars include Maximilian Klas (pictured) as young Adolf Hitler, with Hugh Scully playing the role in tonight’s installment.

 
  
 
 

Spike, 9:00 p.m. ET

Two days before comedian Don Rickles turned 88, a birthday party-slash-roast was held for him in his home town of New York City – specifically, at the Apollo Theater. And what a bash: guests include Jerry Seinfeld, who serves as a sort of host, as well as David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, and Rickles’ long-time best friend, Bob Newhart. Expect some cheap shots in both directions – and some deep belly laughs.

 
  
 
 

DirecTV Audience Network, 10:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: Thandie Newton returns as Grace, the undercover detective with a very complicated relationship with the people she’s investigating, in Season 2 of what is, or tries to be, a distaff version of Wiseguy. Season 2, which begins tonight, has Grace working with an FBI team investigating a local prostitution ring – but that plot doesn’t stay primary for very long, as Grace is pulled in new, even more dangerous directions.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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3695 Comments
 
 
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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.