WEDNESDAY
JANUARY 3
2018

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

CYCLE PREMIERE: This is go-round (or go-round-the-planet) number 30 for The Amazing Race, which years ago was one of the few reality competition series I watched regularly. But after many years of increasingly obvious stunt casting, with pairs of contestants who didn’t get along or had prejudices or other easily inflamed attitudes, the players got in the way of the scenery. My feel-good competition reality show switched to The Voice, and has stayed there ever since. But here’s The Amazing Race, for those who still watch, and care, starting a new mad dash around the globe.
 
  
 
 

Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: Fox sent six of the 10 episodes of this Season 11 of The X-Files for preview, and those six, beginning with tonight’s mythology-continuing episode, pretty much fall into line with previous years. The mythology itself, the show’s intermittent tale of alien visitations and government conspiracies, starts off as the driest and most disappointing element. The stand-alone “monster of the week” episodes are more enjoyable, and truer to the show’s most successful element, and the weird playful ones, at least the one included in the critics’ sampler, shine most brightly of all. So watch, especially, for writer-director Darin Morgan’s “The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat” on Jan. 24, and enjoy all the fun it has with The Twilight Zone, and All the President’s Men, and so, so much more. But tonight, The X-Files resumes with “My Struggle III,” which resolves last season’s cliffhanger about the future (and past) of Gillian Anderson’s Scully. For a full review, see Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes.

 
  
 
 

Fox, 9:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: Of late, producers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk have done no wrong. Most seasons of American Horror Story, and the first seasons of Feud: Bette and Joan and American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, have been artistic and ratings successes, and the upcoming Season 2 of American Crime Story, titled The Assassination of Gianni Versace, looks promising also. But this new 9-1-1 series from the executive producer partners, despite a terrific cast led by some personal favorites (Connie Britton, Peter Krause, Angela Bassett), never rises much above the predictable. The actors do what they can, and the action scenes try to inject energy, but the characters don’t resonate as being real. Krause plays a recovering substance abuser firefighter – and for instant contrast, think of Denis Leary’s vastly superior Rescue Me, and that’s just for starters. Britton plays a 911 dispatcher, and Bassett a uniformed officer for the LAPD – but their roles are both overly telegraphed and underwritten. Check in with 9-1-1 if you’re curious, but don’t expect the connection to last long. For a full review, see Ed Bark’s Uncle Barky’s Bytes

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.