FRIDAY
MAY 30
2014

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

FX, 8:00 p.m. ET

This is the 2009 reboot of the dormant Star Trek movie franchise – a reboot so successful, it not only led to director J.J. Abrams being handed the reins to this iconic sci-fi series, but to the upcoming Star Wars continuation as well. Chris Pine plays a raucous young Starfleet cadet named James Tiberius Kirk, Zachary Quinto co-stars as Spock, and costars include Zoe Saldana as Uhura (pictured), Simon Pegg as Scotty, Karl Urban as Bones, and John Cho as Sulu.  

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Phillip Noyce, famous for directing Patriot Games, and the man who directed Sam Neill and a young Nicole Kidman in 1989’s brilliantly intense Dead Calm, directed this period movie way back in 1978. It’s a salute to the fading glory of the Australian movie newsreel industry, and is the kind of movie someone could make today about, say, newspapers. As TCM’s month-long Friday salute to Australian cinema continues, Newsfront features some internationally known stars (Wendy Hughes, Bryan Brown), alongside some who are major stars Down Under, such as the film’s star, Bill Hunter (pictured).

 
  
 
 

ESPN, 8:30 p.m. ET

Up to this point, the NBA playoffs have been, more or less, basketball as usual. But suddenly there’s a strong dramatic subtext, as the Miami Heat, ahead 3 games to 2 in its series against the Indiana Pacers, returns to its home Miami court to try and takes Game 6 and advance to the next postseason level. The drama? Indiana player Lance Stephenson tried to irritate Miami superstar LeBron James by, among other things, blowing in his ear during a break in the action of Game 5, which the Pacers ended up winning. One anonymous basketball general manager was quoted as saying it may have been unwise for Stephenson to “poke the bear.” Tonight, we’ll get to see the bear’s response.

 
  
 
 

BBC America, 9:00 p.m. ET

Oh, why not? It’s a slow TV tonight, and it’s fun to watch a 1985 John Hughes movie in which sex-obsessed, but sexually ignorant, teens can use their then-primitive home computer to conjure up a fully realized dream girl, as played by Kelly LeBrock. Almost 30 years later, not even today’s most sophisticated 3-D printers can pull off that trick. But I’m waiting…

 
  
 
 

NBC, 10:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: Wil Wheaton, in his debut edition of Syfy’s The Wil Wheaton Project last week, poked fun at John Malkovich’s starring role, as the dreaded pirate Blackbeard, in this new NBC series – using clips from Malkovich’s own TV interviews to present what looked like an overwhelming emotion of boredom and detachment from the star, describing his own series. Tune in to Crossbones, and you may see why. This is the sort of project you can imagine the actor appearing in while under the influence of an internal puppeteer in Being John Malkovich. Still, on a very slow Friday TV night, it's worth a peek, for Malkovich alone.
 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.