FRIDAY
AUGUST 30
2013

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

National Geographic, 7:00 p.m. ET

It may seem like a form of positive reinforcement, but that’s what it is: When a network like National Geographic presents something that used to be at the very core of what it once presented, I’ll most likely support it.  Tonight, for example, is a three-hour special about Charles Darwin and his voyage to and extrapolations from the remote island of Galapagos. Even given the recreations with a Darwin “actor,” this special is precisely what National Geographic Channel is all about. Or should be. Unfortunately, in some respects, the network has… devolved.

 
  
 
 

Style, 8:00 p.m. ET

Cameron Crowe wrote and directed this 1989 teen angst classic, starring John Cusack as a smart slacker in love with a beautiful overachiever (Ione Skye). The persistent courtship is the draw here, but the unexpected depth comes from the girl’s father, played by John Mahoney, with a lot more complexity than expected from this genre.

 
  
 
 

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Stanley Kubrick directed and co-wrote this early anti-war film – and its star Kirk Douglas, was impressed enough by Kubrick to invite him aboard partway through Spartacus. Set during World War I, the story involves soldiers who refuse a suicide-mission order to attack – a refusal that leads to a court-martial.

 
  
 
 

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

Keanu Reeves produced, and acts as interviewer for, this one-hour examination of a basic but significant question about the art of filmmaking: film or digital? In tackling the subject, Reeves does two things very, very right. One, he often divides his own screen in half, to make the argument binary even in a visual sense. Two, he talks with an impressive collection of the best and most innovative filmmakers in the business, including Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Robert Rodriguez, and James Cameron. Check local listings.
 
  
 
 

Sundance, 10:15 p.m. ET

This Richard Curtis romantic comedy-drama, about a bunch of Londoners in and out of love around the Christmas holidays, is a decade old now. It’s no less fresh or funny or moving, but its cast, in the intervening decade, has enjoyed even greater success. Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson were stars back then, but are joined now by Bill Nighy (pictured), Martin Freeman, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Keira Knightley and others.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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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.