THURSDAY
APRIL 30
2020

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

CBS All Access, 3:00 a.m. ET

Last week, I wrote about the scheduled episode, and its revelations about the sinister, conspiratorial “Memo 618.” But that episode didn’t appear. There was no conspiracy – just a one-week production delay, caused by stay-at-home cautions that had everyone sequestered in different places across the country. And while Robert and Michelle King and their post-production staff were figuring out how to complete their shows from a distance, they practiced by producing an explanatory video – one that showed how many people were involved, and how difficult the remote technology was to manage. Then that same video showed just how quick their learning curve was, by following with the cast and crew joining for a remote singalong performance of “You Are My Sunshine.” Considering that The Good Fight cast includes such Broadway musical powerhouses as Audra McDonald and Christine Baranski, it’s definitely worth watching. And today, that “Memo 618” episode arrives – but honestly, I’d settle for a new song video. And when and how, I ask the Kings, will you manage to do an all-out musical episode? Please? Meanwhile, consider the show’s music video treat as, I guess, a Good Fight song.
 
  
 
 

National Theatre at Home, 2:00 p.m. ET

SPECIAL PREMIERE: Here’s another limited-time-offer treat from England’s National Theatre. On its website and on its own YouTube channel, for one week beginning this afternoon, National Theatre At Home presents yet another televised stage production from its archives. Today they’re giving us a double treat: alternating showings of its 2011 production of Frankenstein, in which the two lead actors took turns swapping roles. One is Jonny Lee Miller, who played Sherlock Holmes in CBS’s Elementary. The other is Benedict Cumberbatch, who played Sherlock Holmes in the PBS’s Sherlock. See one version of the production, in which Cumberbatch plays Dr. Frankenstein and Miller the Creature – then see the other version, with those roles reversed. Compare and contrast. The game is afoot!
 
  
 
 

NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET

This retrospective special by The Paley Center for Media, produced in cooperation with NBC, salutes the much-loved NBC sitcom, which premiered in 2009 and presented its final episode in 2015. Or so we thought. But series creator Michael Schur came up with a way to present a new, reunion episode premiering tonight on NBC, just after this special. It’ll include footage from a tenth-anniversary event held at the Center’s Los Angeles wing in March 2019 (pictured). I should point out that Michael Schur had graciously agreed to be interviewed by me, and my Rowan University TV Studies cohort Kim Akass, about his TV career and inspirations, at the Broadcast Education Association convention in Las Vegas. That event was scheduled for April 19, in Las Vegas, only a week ago – but, of course, didn’t happen. But Michael sure found a way to put that unexpected free time to good use. He sat in front of his computer, began typing, and revisited Pawnee, ID, for the one-shot special that follows. Good for you, Mr. Schur. Now, can we talk someday about a post-pandemic rain-check play date?
 
  
 
 

NBC, 8:29 p.m. ET

SERIES RETURN: It’s a return only for this one special episode, for now – but boy, is this suddenly produced and announced “socially distanced” episode a welcome TV treat. (Not only welcome, but generous: It's also a benefit, for Feeding America.) Amy Poehler, returning as Leslie Knope, is worried, during this pandemic shutdown, about her Parks and Recreation friends and colleagues, and so she checks in with them, in and beyond Pawnee, by computer, five years after we last saw them together. Expect lots of surprises, lots of guest stars – and, since Schur just wrapped up the super-thoughtful The Good Place, lots to ponder, even when the show is over. I haven’t seen it, so that’s just an educated guess. But hey: I’m a professor of TV Studies, so it is an educated guess… And I'm also guessing that, since Schur carefully titled this effort A Parks and Recreation Special, the "A" suggests that, in time, that leads the door open for "Another." Here's hoping. And Knope-ing... For a review, see Mike Hughes' Open Mike.
 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.