THURSDAY
APRIL 30
2015

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET

Last week, Grey’s Anatomy said a surprise and sudden goodbye to one of its major and most beloved characters. Tonight, in a two-hour episode, it has the rest of the hospital staffers becoming aware of what Meredith already knows: That Patrick Dempsey’s character of Dr. Derek Shepherd is… no longer with the hospital. Or the series.

 
  
 
 

CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET

SEASON FINALE: Tonight’s episode marks the first time that Sheldon’s mother and Leonard’s mother, played respectively (and equally delightfully) by Laurie Metcalf and Christine Baranski, have appeared in the same episode. That’s a lot of Big Bang for your sitcom buck, so don’t miss it.
 
  
 
 

HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET

MINISERIES PREMIERE: Part 3 of 3. This is the conclusion of J.K. Rowling’s miniseries, which stars Michael Gambon as the prominent patriarch of a small British town, trying to steer a public election to favor the transformation of a rehabilitative halfway house to a luxury hotel and spa. There are a few good performances, but this final episode takes an unforgivably bleak turn, and also, on balance, isn’t that good, period. If it were, would HBO be showing this miniseries on a Wednesday and Thursday?

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Six movies about or featuring the infamous Western outlaw Billy the Kid are presented in tonight’s all-night cinematic shoot-out. With half a dozen movies, you might even call it a six-shooter. The action begins with 1970’s Chisum, a fact-based Western in which John Wayne stars in the title role as John Chisum, and Geoffrey Deuel appears as Billy “The Kid” Bonney. That’s followed, at 10 p.m. ET, by the must-see Western of this wild bunch: 1973’s Sam Peckinpah-directed Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, starring Kris Kristofferson as Billy, James Coburn as lawman Garrett, and Bob Dylan (pictured) as the mysterious character called Alias. (Dylan also provided this movie’s haunting musical hit, “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.”) Other films in this mini-festival include 1958’s The Left-Handed Gun, starring Paul Newman as Billy, at 12:15 a.m. ET; 1950’s I Shot Billy the Kid, at 2:15 a.m. ET, starring Don Barry as Billy; 1930’s Billy the Kid (3:30 a.m. ET), an early Western, directed by King Vidor, starring John Mack Brown as Billy and Wallace Beery as Garrett; and, finally, 1958’s Badman’s Country at, starring George Montgomery as Pat Garrett, and emphasis on other big Western names other than Billy.

 
  
 
 

FX, 10:30 p.m. ET

In tonight’s Louie, Louie (Louis C.K.) spends some time with his older brother – who has some observations about life that tend to be vastly different from his more successful sibling’s.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.