TUESDAY
JUNE 3
2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film was a genre masterpiece then, and it’s a genre masterpiece today – and, most likely, will remain a genre masterpiece tomorrow. The movie seems to be almost nothing but extended set pieces, each iconic movie sequence leading to another. Monoliths. Moon shuttles. Malevolent supercomputers. Star childs. Trips to the end of space and time. And speaking of trips – watch again, as paranoid shipboard computer HAL uses his photographic red “eye” lens to eavesdrop on his ship’s human astronauts by reading their lips. It’s the same series of shots replicated in a recent Mad Men, as Michael Ginsberg went crazy while watching Lou Avery and Jim Cutler having a private conversation in the new computer room.

 
  
 
 

FX, 10:00 p.m. ET

This show just builds and builds, as its characters deepen along with the plot. And Billy Bob Thornton as Malvo – he may just be the most deadpan antihero, or villain, in TV history. Or at least since Miguel Ferrer popped up as super-droll FBI forensics specialist Albert in Twin Peaks.

 
  
 
 

Syfy, 10:00 p.m. ET

So now we know what Wil Wheaton’s new show is all about. It’s an overview of the week in sci fi – part recap, part preview, and part politely snarky observational humor. The humor needs a little work, but Wheaton, and Syfy, may be on to something here, especially with the proliferation of the Talking Dead-type TV shows popping up all of a sudden. And with Chris Hardwick, that show's host, popping up on Wheaton's first show as well...
 
  
 
 

TCM, 10:45 p.m. ET

2001: A Space Odyssey isn’t the only outer-space film classic shown tonight on TCM. Right after that 1968 movie ends, 1979’s Alien begins – and, before long, presents one of the scariest scenes in all of science fiction cinema. Sigourney Weaver stars.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 4:45 a.m. ET

Earlier this same evening, TCM presents a groundbreaking outer-space movie in terms of themes and special effects (2001: A Space Odyssey), followed by an equally groundbreaking one in terms of gender (Alien, presenting Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley as a take-no-prisoners heroine). Stay up long enough, though, and those films from the Sixties and Seventies, respectively, will be crushed in counterpoint by this movie from the Fifties. Queen of Outer Space, made in 1958, is as laughably horrible in terms of special effects (so laughabkle it’s enjoyable) as it is in terms of its portrayal of women – who, in this outrageous space fantasy, rule a planet! Zsa Zsa Gabor stars, but not in the titular role.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.